The Love That Would Save the World
by hermyd
Summary: Lily did not always love James, and it took a remarkable relationship to get Lily and James to the point where they would die to protect those they love. Follow the couple and their friends as they fall in love and face the world and all the evil therein
1. New Beginnings

Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter and Hogwarts belongs to JK Rowling. I claim none of the characters and simply offer my thanks for the ability to play in her world.

The Love that Would Save the World

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Lily was in her bedroom, staring dreamily out into the yard and trying to imagine what was in store for her the next day: she was finally returning to Hogwarts for her seventh and final year. This alone would have given her enough to think about, and that wasn't even including the contents of the letter she held loosely in her hand.

This letter was from Professor Dumbledore informing her that he wished her to take up the duties of Head Girl for the next year. She was not quite sure how she felt about this. It was gratifying to her to think that she had been chosen out of all the girls at Hogwarts, and she wasn't denying that it would be quite fun to have the extra power that came with the position. But at the same time she was a little concerned. She was worried who was going to be Head Boy.

She had a nasty little suspicion in the back of her mind that it might just be James Potter, and that would take all of the fun out of being Head Girl. She hated James. She had hated him for nearly as long as she had known him, at least, she had disliked him that long. She probably hadn't started to hate him until that day towards the end of fifth year… Even thinking about that day made her seethe with anger…

They had just finished taking their Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL—an OWL that she had received an O in, mind you—and she and her friends were talking down by the lake when she had looked up to see James Potter cruelly humiliating and picking on Severus Snape. Now Lily had very little sympathy for Snape, he never failed to spit out the title of Mudblood whenever he saw her, but she still did not want to see him humiliated like that. No one deserved that. She had tried to stop James, demanding to know what motivation he had for torturing the other boy. His response was a shrug of the shoulders. He was torturing Snape simply because he could.

That was why she hated James Potter. He wasted him amazingly large amount of talent causing as much trouble and pain as he could. Not to mention the fact that he kept on asking her out last year. Like she would ever go out with that bigheaded, self-assured jerk. The fact that he even thought she would say yes was disgusting to her. He thought that just because of who he was she would fall all over herself to be with him, just like every other girl at the school had. Sure he was decent looking, and his flying was unbeatable, and he was brilliant, but he was still a jerk, and she didn't date jerks.

Lily dwelt on these satisfying reflections for a long time. She relished the hatred she held for James Potter, like it gave her life meaning or purpose. She just hoped she wouldn't have to put up with him all year as Head Boy. Maybe she would simply resign… no, that was giving up too much for someone she didn't even like. She would simply treat him like the jerk that he was whenever she had to deal with him, and ignore him when she could.

With this resolve Lily turned and stared around at her room. With a start she realized just how little progress she had made towards packing her trunk. She looked at the clock by her bedside; it was 12:30, and she was exhausted. Then she felt a shock course through her: _It was 12:30! I'm seventeen! I can do magic!_ For the last thirty minutes she had been legally allowed to use magic outside of school, and she hadn't even noticed. She had been too busy being angry at James. Well, now that she could use it, she was going to have a little fun with it.

She pulled her wand out of her desk, and with a casual flick, filled her trunk with most of her possessions—she even managed to make her socks fold themselves. She very much liked these householdy charms. To be honest, she really liked charms. Eager to do more, she turned and saw her reflection in the mirror hanging on the back of her door. She looked at herself intently; it was time for a change. Her parents had never allowed her to do much with her appearance, but now there was little they could do to stop her.

She examined her reflection for a few more minutes and then with a wave of her wand, cut off nearly six inches of her long hair. She even gave herself a stylish new cut with layers and curls. She then gave herself a pair of earrings—not large ones, just an elegant curl of silver, and a new outfit. Although she would be wearing school robes for most of the next year, there was no harm in showing up to the train in a stylish new outfit, in this case a slimming sundress in pale green that brought out the color in her eyes. She gave one more look at herself and conjured up some small items of makeup, thinking that it couldn't hurt. Then, smiling to herself, Lily Evans climbed in to bed, looking forward to the morrow.

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A few hundred miles away a boy with the most untidy of black hair and startlingly hazel eyes was staring dreamily out of his own bedroom window. He was exceptionally good looking, with a roughish and carefree look that had half of Hogwarts in love with him, and the other half green with envy. He wasn't unusually tall, but his body was built well from years of hard training on the Quidditch field. He held a letter in his hand, a letter informing him that he had been chosen as Head Boy, and he was doing some serious thinking. For the past six years he and his best friends had had the goal of causing as much trouble as possible and having as much fun as they possibly could in the process. But he was slowly coming to the realization that maybe he needed to change. Partly it was because of the letter he held in his hand. He needed to set an example for the rest of the school, and it shouldn't be by sitting in detention every other night. But he had another reason. He needed to change because that was the only way he would ever get the girl. And he sure was in love with that girl.

Into his minds eye floated a radiant vision: a beautiful girl with red wavy hair cascading down her back and piercing green eyes. He had dreamt about those eyes all summer long, and he wanted those eyes to approve of him. Besides, he was getting a bit old for the troublemaker persona; he was simply done with it. He wanted to be someone who he wouldn't regret being later in life, someone his children would one day be proud of. So as he sat looking out the window as the sun set in a brilliant bath of red and gold he made a plan for the rest of his life, for what kind of person he would be and what he would accomplish, and he vowed to stick to his plan.

As he went to bed that night with these plans running through his mind, these thoughts occasionally being interrupted with the image of a girl with brilliant green eyes, he wondered if it would be enough. He wondered if she would ever like him, if she would ever forgive him for being the world's biggest prat for the last six years. And he secretly wondered if he could live another year without that redhead in his life.

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September first dawned bright and early, and all across the country young witches and wizards were excitedly traveling towards King's Cross Station in London where they would board the train to return to Hogwarts. As she walked on to the platform, her Head Girl badge pinned to her new dress, Lily Evans felt a thrill run through her: she had missed school. She had spent all summer with her depressingly Muggle sister Petunia, and she was anxious to get back to a place where she wasn't despised and where she didn't feel like a freak of nature—or rather a freak who didn't fit in with nature, as Petunia called her. She was standing on the platform trying to catch sight of her best friend, Shannyn Jones, when a quite voice called her around,

"Evans?" It was James, the prat himself. But he didn't have a haughty expression on his face as she had expected. Instead he was staring in disbelief at the girl in front of him. He had always thought Lily beautiful, but today was the first day he had ever seen her care about her appearance. At the sound of his voice Lily whipped around, her read hair flying, expecting to have to tell him off for something or other, and instead she ended up stared right back.

Lily's first impression was that he looked good, but she quickly suppressed this thought—she didn't want to think those thoughts about James, but this thought was almost immediately replaced by a resigned sigh—he had a badge pinned to his chest, a badge carrying the words Head Boy.

James was feeling the pressing need to find a reason to excuse the way he had been staring at her for the past few minutes. He couldn't exactly tell her that she looked so beautiful that she had taken away his ability to speak, move, or even think. His eyes fell on the badge pinned to the strap of her light green dress—_wow that color made her eyes look amazing_—and stammered out,

"I didn't know that you were going to be Head Girl?" His voice was subdued, almost shy. But Lily noticed that it was missing the arrogant tone she had always heard in his voice. A small voice snuck into her head, _maybe he's changed…maybe he's changed for YOU!_

"Um, yeah… I just got the letter last week."

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around. Bye, Evans." She just stared at his retreating back. _Wow, James Potter said hi without acting like a prat, and without asking me out… that's got to be some kind of record._

James had other thoughts on his mind. He was thinking of the way the light played across Lily's lusciously red hair, and the way her eyes seemed to see right through him, and the way she made him feel—as if a large weight was bearing down on his chest keeping him from breathing and as if his insides were fighting to free themselves from the confines of his body. He was completely unnerved. It didn't help that she looked like she could be a model. She had silver twists hanging from her ears that wove in with her styled hair. Her eyes had been accented by a hint of silver, and her lips sparkled… _he shouldn't be thinking about her lips…, _and then there was that dress. He had never seen her look so beautiful.

Thus the end result of the combination of all these things was that James Potter wasn't even able to walk in a straight line towards the door of the train that Sirius Black, his best friend, was holding open for him. Nor was he able to focus on the conversation in their compartment for at least an hour. Peter Pettigrew, a small little mouse of a boy, was inclined to be mad about James' lack of input into their conversation. James had never before not been interested in helping to plan their expeditions during the full moon, especially when it was the first full moon the four friends had spent together for a few months.

Remus Lupin hadn't noticed. As it was full moon in two nights he wasn't feeling extremely well, and he was only half listening to the conversation. But Sirius, strangely enough, hushed Peter's protestations. From the sly smile he was giving James it seemed certain that he had witnessed the interaction that had taken place on the platform and he knew James was thoroughly occupied in thoughts of Lily. Or perhaps Sirius' smile was because he had seen what James had not—the look on Lily's face as she watched James walk away. For the first time since Lily and James had met, Lily had not looked at James with a look of dislike. Sirius couldn't say exactly what her look was, but the fact that it wasn't dislike boded well for his lovesick friend.

James was sitting in a corner of the compartment lost in a sea of green, the startling green of her eyes. He was trying to figure out why the only thing he could think about was how nice it would be to run his hands through her long hair while staring into those eyes. He was trying to figure out why the cool and ever confident James Potter had completely lost his presence of mind. It wasn't as if he had never lost his cool around Lily before, but typically his reaction was to become haughty and conceited, for some reason he had thought this would attract her to him as much as it had attracted every other girl in the school to him. But she was different, and he knew that he needed to be different if he was ever going to do more than stare at her, or daydream about running his hands through her hair.

Yet even more than this, today he was suddenly overwhelmed with the possibility that he could ever do more than stare at her. Maybe it was the fact that this was the first time they had ever been in each others presence for more than ten seconds without her yelling at him or him making a complete and utter prat of himself. Maybe it could happen… Maybe that hair wasn't as far beyond his reach as he had thought…

Sirius watched his best friend. James was like a brother to him. Well, actually, James was closer to Sirius then Sirius' own brother Regulus had ever been. And Sirius could read his friend's mind with a simple glance. James and Sirius had been the heartthrobs of the school for the last few years, but James had always seemed uninterested in all the girls but the one he couldn't have. Sirius, on the other hand, had become something of a playboy. He never had had an actual girlfriend, but he had numerous flings, and he had often tried to get James to follow his example instead of lingering over a girl he could never get. But as Sirius watched his best friend wander in the land of day dreams, he silently wondered if maybe James didn't have it right after all. Maybe it was better to find someone to love instead of having Sirius' more carefree attitude towards girls… it was worth thinking about at least.

A/N: LJforever123, I am hoping that I will have lots of chapters. The current plan is at least 30. I want to take this all the way until their death, and that is a lot to cover.


	2. James is Unable to Do Anything

Chapter 2: James is Unable to Do Anything and Lily has to Make Excuses

It was Thursday night in Gryffindor common room and the four Marauders were sitting in front of a roaring fire attempting to finish their homework for Transfiguration. They were slightly behind in their homework, for Tuesday night had been a full moon, and the foursome had had an exciting reunion in the Shrieking Shack followed by a wild chase through the castle when they were almost caught by Filch on their way back to the common room. Exhausted, the four boys had spent most of yesterday lounging around while laughing at the expression on Filch's face when they had eluded him once again. But today they had all woke up with the startling realization that they were now days behind on their homework.

James had it worse than the others, as he had Quidditch try outs on Saturday—the new captain, Ludo Bagman, was insisting that all the current members of the team show up for try outs—and he had Head Duties on Sunday night. It was the prospect of that night that was causing James to keep on staring moodily into the fire instead of paying attention to the book open in his lap, _A Beginner's Guide to the Animagus_. He didn't really need to be reading the book anyways, as an animagus himself he didn't need to read about how difficult the transformation was. Thus he had found it quite easy to forgo the reading of the book in favor of the much more pleasant task of staring into the fire and thinking about Lily.

James was thinking about earlier that day when he had rounded the corner on his way to Potions and seen a Slytherin fifth year terrorizing a Hufflepuff first year into hysterics. Sirius, who was walking next to James, had been inclined to follow their usual practice and hex the Slytherin, but James stopped him.

"Come on Padfoot, I'm supposed to be setting a good example now, remember?" Accordingly, he had stopped the fight, reprimanded the Slytherin and docked him points, and talked kindly to the Hufflepuff until the boy's tears had stopped streaming down his face. It was only as James had walked back to Sirius—who had a look of pure incredulity on his face—that James had seen Lily standing down the hall, watching James with a look of mingled shock and awe. James had glowed inside. Smiling shyly at Lily he had pulled Sirius passed her into the dungeon where they had potions and found a seat at the back of the classroom so that Professor Slughorn wouldn't notice the teasing that Sirius would assuredly soon be giving him.

Sirius did indeed laugh at his best friend for the entire Potions lesson, but James had simply ignored him. _Lily was impressed, I know it! She was shocked that I didn't do as I used to, as Sirius had suggested. She was shocked that I had acted the way she would have… Maybe she will come around…_

As James sat staring into the fire, rethinking the thoughts of the morning, Remus looked over, "Prongs, what's wrong with you tonight?"

"Oh, don't bother him, Moony, he's lovesick." Sirius responded in a mocking tone. "He's thinking about how he impressed Miss Lily this morning and how she then spent all of Potions class looking at him."

"What?" James started, coming out of his reverie, "Lily was looking at me?"

"Man, you are out of it. Didn't you see her watching you whenever Slughorn wasn't looking?"

"No… I was concentrating on my potion."

"Sure you were, mate. Or did you forget that your potion today was such a failure that Slughorn wouldn't even take a sample of it to mark? Your mind must have been somewhere else… or on someone else…" Sirius had a strange look in his eyes, like for the first time in his life he didn't understand his best friend. "Why do you care so much about this girl, mate? Go find yourself one of the hundreds of girls running around this place who would love to snog you and move on with your life."

James rolled his eyes. "You just don't get it, Padfoot. Lily is different… she's special... Besides, I don't want to snog anyone else." Sirius scoffed and returned to his own work. But he couldn't give it up. A few minute later he looked up and said,

"Why do you have to be so high and mighty all of the sudden, James? Why do you have to get all grown up on us?" There was a strong note of irritation in his voice, and Peter looked up in awe—he would never talk to James like that. James looked up, anger flushed over his face.

"One day, Sirius, you are going to fall in love, and then you'll understand that there are some things worth changing for, that there are some people worth becoming a different person for." He gathered up his books and stalked out of the common room, Sirius watching him leave in disbelief. _Maybe James is right, maybe I just don't get it…_

He mulled over this for sometime, then decided to just give his friend up as a bad job. James never had been able to understand the full beauty of a good snogging session as Sirius did. This was perhaps why Sirius had pretty much run through all the good looking, non-Slytherin girls in Hogwarts. James, on the other hand, had had eyes for only one girl since their fifth year.

James' anger with Sirius lasted for over a week, helped along by the fact that Sirius kept on sniggering at him whenever he caught James staring off into space instead of doing anything productive. And this was happening quite frequently. Every time he tried to concentrate on the task in front of him he somehow managed to loose himself instead in thoughts of Lily. Things were getting very bad.

Last year, he had certainly liked her a lot, but he had still been able to perform normal activities, such as walking down the hall or eating his dinner without making a complete and utter prat of himself. Now, well let's just say he was glad that it was only the first week and there homework load wasn't too bad yet. But he needed to get control of himself, because if he kept this up he would be kicked out of school soon. Slughorn had even called James into his office and expressed concern over the fact that James had failed to produce the correct potion for three lessons in a row. This had been particularly embarrassing as Lily had caught him exiting Slughorn's office, and Slughorn had boomed out,

"There's my girl—best potion maker in the school! Maybe you could pass some of your expertise off to young Potter here. He's been suffering in class recently."

James had turned a brick red color, and mumbled something about not needing help, and then he had turned and bolted down the hall as fast as he could. That had happened on Friday afternoon, and James had been so humiliated that he had spent all evening hiding in his dormitory. On Saturday he had run into Lily on his way to Quidditch practice. James had blushed and turned hastily away, but she had called him back,

"James," James looked up in shock, "um, we are supposed to hold a prefect meeting tomorrow. Did you want to get together this afternoon to discuss what we need to go over?" James stared at her, amazed that she was speaking to him without yelling.

"Um, I could do that… I guess I'll see you later, Lily…" As he walked down to the Quidditch pitch, James felt his stomach fighting to exit his mouth again, _Lily wants to spend the afternoon with me…_

Lily watched him go without moving from her spot. That was the first time he had ever called her Lily. Usually it was Evans, spoken with conceit and self-assurance. Lily sounded nice from him. She thought back to the previous day when Professor Slughorn had suggested she help him with Potions. She liked to know that he wasn't the best at everything.

Truth be told, Lily was often a little jealous of how good James was at everything, especially as he seemed to be good at it without putting forth any effort whatsoever. It was nice to see him brought back down to earth. Of course, she felt a little sorry for him that it had happened in such a brutal manner, he had been so embarrassed… which, come to think of it, was a little odd. She couldn't remember seeing James ever being embarrassed before. He really did seem different…

James, down on the Quidditch pitch, was having a very bad time of it. James was the best Chaser on the team, but today he seemed unable to even catch the Quaffle, let alone score a goal with it—he was going to be spending the afternoon with Lily… His mind was so far away from the game that when Bagman blew the whistle to signal the end of practice James dove straight into the muddy field instead of dismounting in any sort of a dignified fashion. Blushing furiously, he picked himself up and tried to ignore the hilarious laughter issuing from the mouths of his teammates.

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Lily was sitting up in the common room attempting to complete an essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts on the best way to block a skilled Legilimens from entering your mind. She was attempting to complete her essay, but she was in reality staring out of the open window towards the Quidditch Pitch. She watched as James fell unceremoniously off of his broom and was unable to restrain a snicker at the fallen boy. Her best friend, Shannyn, looked up from across the table.

"What has gotten in to you?"

"Oh, nothing. I just don't feel much like doing homework today." Lily replied absent mindedly. Shannyn just stared at her. This was _not_ like Lily. After several more minutes of Shannyn watching Lily staring out the window, she finally spoke up again,

"You're not a very good liar Lil. Why don't you just tell me what is going on?"

"Nothing. I am just thinking of what topics I need to cover in the prefects' meeting tomorrow."

"But tomorrow is ages away. You don't need to worry about that until the morning."

Lily looked up sheepishly. "Well, actually, I'm supposed to meet James this afternoon to talk about it."

Shannyn stared at her. "James?"

"Yeah, you know he wanted to make sure that everything was set for tomorrow and to discuss some things with me."

"So this was his idea?"

"Um, yeah…"

"And you said yes? Need I remind you that this is the boy you swore you would hate for the rest of your life?"

"Well, we really do need to discuss things… and he's not quite that bad, you know, at least, not any more. Besides, I had better get to know him better as I'll be working with him all year."

"Get to know him better?" Shannyn repeated weakly. This was definitely not Lily. She wouldn't even look Shannyn in the eye, as if she thought that if she did then her friend might just be able to tell that Lily wasn't telling the complete truth. And that might have led to awkward questioning. Like why exactly Lily was covering up the fact that she had asked to meet with James. Or why she had asked to meet with James in the first place.

Actually, Lily was meeting with James because she wanted to see if just maybe he might have changed. Because if he had changed then she could relinquish the hatred she had held towards him for so long in favor of a much more enjoyable emotion like companionship, or even friendship. And Lily was lying about this because she couldn't quite bring herself to admit that she just might want to be friends with the boy she had hated for so long and because she couldn't explain, not even to herself, precisely why she wanted to be friends with him. Thus to avoid many nasty questions that she didn't quite know the answer to, Lily Evans, for the first time in her life, chose to lie to her best friend to avoid being asked them.


	3. The Mind of a Red Head

Chapter 3: The Mind of a Red Head

Lily Evans was not the type of love sick girl who spent weeks at a time moaning after some stupid boy who had no more to recommend him than his looks. In fact, Lily could never remember a time when she had ever had any emotion whatsoever towards someone of the male species. (Lily felt boys were so stupid that they didn't deserve to be classed with herself and her friends.)

I mean, there are rare exceptions to the 'boys are stupid' rule, Professor Slughorn, Professor Dumbledore, her father… But these were all individuals who had used their brains to get ahead in the world, not their looks. With such a pessimistic attitude towards boys in general it is little wonder that Lily Evans had never found herself with a crush, no matter how insignificant of a crush it was, on a boy. She had much better uses for her time.

Like planning another prefect's meeting with James.

It was odd how much James had changed since last year. Then his sole ambition had been to act cocky and attempt to get her attention so that he could ask her out again. Like she would ever have dated a boy who was so sure of himself that even when she had turned him down countless times he still thought that one day she would say yes. The nerve…

But that was then. This James was a completely different person. And it wasn't just that he was acting different around her either. The other day she had heard him tell off Sirius for laughing at a poor third year who had accidentally given herself a pair of gigantic wings in place of her arms. Of course, James didn't know she had heard. He was too busy helping the poor girl get her arms back to notice that Lily was standing around the corner listening the whole time.

Lily had also recently discovered that James could understand things that no one else could. Shannyn was still her best friend, and she loved her dearly, but she was an only child from an old wizarding family and she just couldn't understand the problems associated with having an older Muggle sister who couldn't stand the sight of her. James did, though. Even though he came from the same type of family as Shann he seemed to understand what Lily had to deal with. He said it was because he had had to watch Sirius deal with similar issues in his own family that he understood how hard it was.

And then there was the fact that Lily, coming from a background of absolutely no magic, had very little idea as to what she should do with her life, what any witch or wizard did with their life. And that was a scary thought. James seemed to feel for her. Of course, he didn't really need to do anything with his life. He had never told her, but she had dug around on her own and she knew that his family was so wealthy that he never had to work a day in his life and he would still leave a fortune behind. But he still wanted to do something with his life, to make a difference in the world, not matter how small that difference was.

It was comforting to have someone to talk to, really. They could talk about anything. He had even spent an entire week attempting to explain to her how Quidditch works. A hopeless cause, but sweet nonetheless.

Lily stopped dead in the middle of her musings, she had just called James Potter 'sweet'. James, of all people, was _not_ sweet. How could she even think that? What was wrong with her?

Then a small little voice started up in the back of her head. _He is sweet to you. And you like it._

_I do not!!!!_ Screamed an irate red head, throwing her pillow across the room and causing the other occupants to stare at her and wonder what kind of messed up potion she had taken that day.

Lily ran up the dormitory steps and threw herself into her bed. She curled up in a tight ball with the mantra _I do not… I do not…_running through her head until she fell asleep.

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It was a good thing that it was Saturday morning, for Lily didn't wake up until nearly noon. She hadn't fallen asleep until nearly 2 in the morning because she had been so frustrated with herself. First because she was thinking about James, then because she was mad that she was thinking about James, then because she was mad that she was mad that she was thinking about James. It had been a very vicious cycle of thoughts.

She groggily rubbed her eyes and lay in bed, watching the clouds drift across the sky outside, trying to avoid thinking about anything at all.

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James had been sitting cross-legged in front of the entrance to the girl's dormitory all morning, waiting for Lily to come down. About ten in the morning Shannyn had found him thus on her way to breakfast and had given him a fierce stare.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" He glanced hastily around the room to assure himself that Sirius was no where to be found before responding.

"Waiting for Lily. We were supposed to have … uh… a planning meeting this morning, but she never showed. I just got worried about her is all." Shannyn stared at him, trying to unravel his feelings for her friend, and trying to decide if she thought he was quite good enough for Lily. "Is, um, is Lily okay?" Deep within his eyes there was a hint of worry which he was trying desperately to repress. Maybe he really did care for Lily.

"I'm not sure. She had a really rough night and isn't awake yet. But she seems to be sleeping peacefully now, so I'm sure she'll be okay."

"Oh… thanks" he whispered absentmindedly. Shannyn waited for a few minutes, to see if he would saying anything else, but he seemed to be lost inside his own head so she gave it up and went out to find Sirius. They definitely needed to help those two along.

James sat staring up the stairs for several minutes. He was sure she was okay, but he had seen her run up the stairs last night in a fit of anxiety or anger or something, and he was worried. Then a slight smile broke across his face. With a wild look in his eye he pelted up the stairs to his own room and pulled a silken cloak out of his trunk. Glancing around to make sure he wasn't seen, James ducked under the cloak and disappeared. But a keen observer might have heard something fly out the window and around to the window of the girls' room, then slip quietly in the room. He didn't take the cloak off once he was standing by Lily's bedside in case she woke up and saw him there, but he took out his wand, and staring at her beautiful hair cascading all over her pillow he conjured a large red daisy, which he then left on her bed.

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Lily rolled over to get grudgingly out of bed and gasped. There on her bed was a perfect red daisy, the large Gerber daisy that she had only ever seen pictures of her. She gently picked it up, and discovered that underneath it lay a tiny slip of paper.

_Sometimes, when things get to be too much, you have to find a way to get away._

Beneath the words there was scrawled a map with a few words of instructions on how to open a door.

Curiously, Lily wrapped a warm blanket around her, threw her hair up into a messy bun, and followed the instructions that had been left for her. They led her to an empty hallway in the seventh floor with a picture of a strange assortment of trolls in tutus. She then followed the rather odd instructions, and walked up and down the hallway, three times, with her eyes tightly shut and her mind repeating _I need to find my surprise_. By the third turn Lily thought for sure she was being pranked, but when she opened her eyes an exquisite door had appeared in the previously blank wall. Rather astonished, she pulled it open and stepped inside, and her mouth dropped open in shock.

She had stepped into a miniature replica of her own bedroom back home. There was even an exact copy of her favorite chair with the blanket her mother had made her when she was 10 draped across it. A roaring fire had been lit in the small fireplace, a tray of hot chocolate and all of her favorite sweets sat next to the chair, and in front of the chair was a rather odd looking contraption that vaguely resembled a Muggle telly.

Lily walked across to the chair and found a note waiting for her.

_Lily- I don't know what is wrong, but I don't like to see my friends upset, so I hope this helps a little bit. Regular tellys won't work around Hogwarts, but I rigged something up anyways so that you could have the pleasure of this little surprise. You told me once that your favorite way to calm down after a horrible day was to curl up in your chair with your blanket and watch an old movie called "Gone with the Wind." So I hope you enjoy your afternoon. No one will bug you in here, this room will only let you in right now, so don't worry about being interrupted._

_James_

In utter shock Lily collapsed onto the chair, and as she did the makeshift television started up on its own and begin playing the opening credits for "Gone with the Wind." She didn't know how he had done it, but he had actually managed to find a way to play a Muggle movie in the middle of Hogwarts. And he had done so for her.

That clenched it. Lily Evans was in love with James Potter, and there was absolutely no way she could deny it now. Thus instead she did a far more sensible thing and curled up with her blanket to watch her favorite movie with a large mug of hot chocolate.

A/N: RandomObsessivePsychoFangirl, I love gerber daisies, they are my favorite flowers. And they have some that are blood red. So I made them Lily's favorite flower as well. I had the idea that James had cornered Shannyn and asked what Lily's favorite flower was, that way he could get one for her.


	4. When First We Practice to Deceive

Chapter 4: When First We Practice to Deceive

For the next month Lily studiously avoided the discussion of James. She had had several more 'planning' meetings with him, but Lily refused to allow her reasons for these meetings to be analyzed by Shannyn. Instead, she adopted the tactic of avoiding such questioning schemes by always having questions on a homework assignment ready to be asked whenever Shannyn brought James up. Eventually, Shannyn simply stopped asking. She realized that her friend wasn't being truthful with her, and she wasn't about to force her confidence, but it nonetheless hurt her that Lily couldn't trust her.

James handled things some what better, for he simply did not let his friends know that he was meeting Lily so often. Whenever he was supposed to go meet her he claimed that he needed to go to the library. Remus was slightly puzzled by this. He figured that if James had been spending so much time in the library then his homework should be receiving top marks. This, however, was not the case, for James' homework scores had reached an all time low, something Remus had noticed but had refrained from commenting on to spare James the inevitable laughter that Sirius would be sure to send his way.

Lily and James' 'meetings', for lack of a better word, had quickly lost any pretext of having anything to do with Head duties. Mostly, they simply talked. In fact, though Lily would never admit it, the two had become very close friends. James found that he didn't need to act confident and smooth around Lily—she actually preferred that he didn't—and that he could simply be himself without any pretexts. This was a bit relaxing after having spent so many years of his life trying to impress everyone around him. In turn, Lily found that James seemed to understand her better than anyone else. He respected her opinion and thoughts like no one else had ever been able to before. Traditionally, Lily was slightly ignored by most people. She was so book smart and unpretentious that her thoughts were typically shrugged off without comment. But James listened to her, and he welcomed her confidence in him. The girl that until a month ago hated the very sight of him was now the one person that he could talk freely to about everything, everything, that is, except for the feelings he had for her. He quickly found that he was unable to function well when she wasn't around, because he was constantly thinking about her. But when she was there he could stare at her while she talked without arousing attention to the fact that he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He took joy in her mere presence. Thus he increasingly found excuses to sneak off to the 'library', and towards the middle of October this began to rouse the attention of Sirius.

"I think something's up with Prongs." Sirius stated as he watched James once more scurrying out of the common room.

"You think? Where have you been for the past month?" Remus responded. "Haven't you noticed that he hasn't been around very much. And he suddenly seems to be needing to spend a lot of time in the library."

"I hadn't noticed." Sirius replied thoughtfully. He had been a bit preoccupied himself (by this meaning that he had found a new girl whose sole ambition in life seemed to be to spend as much time snogging Sirius as humanely possible). "Come to think of it, though, he hasn't been much fun even when he has been here." He sat in meditative silence for a few minutes. Being who he was, there was only one plausible explanation for James' strange behavior in Sirius' mind, as it was the thing that caused Sirius himself to wander absentmindedly through the castle for weeks at a time. "I think Prongs has found himself a girlfriend."

Remus looked up, a thoughtful expression marring his face. "That might explain a lot… Wonder who it could be."

"Not sure. Let's ask." And the bold Sirius, watched by a shocked Remus, turned to the common room at large and called, "Anyone know what James has been up to recently?"

"Sirius!"

"What? I had to find out somehow. And it's not as if James is around enough to ever find out, provided of course that you don't tell him." Remus still looked scandalized, but he was spared the task of replying by the hesitant approach of a girl with curly brown hair with red streaks and brown eyes mixed with green.

"Hey Shannyn," Sirius called. "Have some information for us."

"Well," she responded, as if unsure that she should be doing what she was about to do, "I think I know what's going on. But it really isn't any of our business…"

"Aw, come on Shann, you know I don't care about butting in to other people's business."

"And that makes it okay, does it?" The brunette instantly flared up. She then turned to leave in a huff. Sirius jumped up and grabbed her arm to prevent her hasty escape.

"Shann, I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did. Don't lie to me!"

"Okay, maybe I did, but that doesn't mean you can't tell me what you were going to tell me. He's my best mate and I'm just worried about him." Shannyn turned and looked at him warily, unaffected by the winning smile he was giving her—she wasn't superficial enough to be swayed by his good looks.

"I wouldn't worry about him too much." She finally responded. "I think he's with Lily."

"Lily!" sputtered Sirius. "But I thought she hated him!"

"I'm not sure what she feels about him, but I'm pretty sure she hasn't hated him in over a month. They've been spending all their time together recently."

"How do you know this?"

"I followed them the other day."

"Oh." He was looking at her with respect. He wouldn't have guessed that the little brunette would have enough spunk to follow Lily and James, or enough common sense to do it without getting caught. "So what are they up to?"

"Not what you are thinking, that's for sure."

"How do you know what I'm thinking?"

"It's pretty obvious." She responded scathingly. "Just because you don't know what to do with a girl besides snog her to death doesn't mean that James can't be more of a gentleman. I don't think they have even reached the point yet where they have admitted they like each other. Of course, it is pretty obvious that they do. He can't take his eyes off of her and there is no other reason that Lily would be lying to cover up that she is spending time with him." Sirius stared at her. "Do you think that you could let go of me now?" Sirius blinked, he still had a firm grip on her arm.

"Sorry…" he replied, and hastily stepped back from her. "Um, so what should we do about them?"

"Help them along, of course." She responded with a roll of her eyes. "Lily is never going to admit she likes him without help and James has been rejected so many times he isn't likely to have the courage to try again."

"Right," he said. "Well," gesturing towards a couch, "my lady, it looks like we have some conspiring to do." And Sirius, without a backwards look towards Remus, followed the spunky girl to the couch and sat making plans with her for over an hour, much to the chagrin of all the girls in the common room who were hoping he would talk to them instead of the brunette currently seated next to him.

The results of the conspirators' discussion that night did not become apparent for some days, as they had to make sure that when they did interfere it would not cause them to lose their respective best friends. Sirius had prodded James enough to be sure that no matter how mad James got at him he would always forgive him in the end, but Shannyn was new to all of this and was much more hesitant about doing anything that might harm her friendship with Lily. It took Sirius nearly a week to coach her through how to avoid the wrath of the fiery red head. But the results did come.

On a fine Saturday morning in early November Sirius and Shannyn, tailed by a disgusted Remus who protested that he was only there to keep them from going too far, cornered James and nearly dragged him out to a secluded corner of the grounds. Nearly dragged meaning that James had no intention of coming along willingly and Sirius had to curse him into immobility and levitate his furious form outside. Once James had been returned to a fully functional, albeit livid, state, Sirius began,

"Well, Prongs, my friend," James scoffed, "we have brought you here to force you to listen to a cool voice of reason."

"As if you're voice was ever the voice of reason…"

"I'm hurt, Prongs. But no, not to listen to me…"

"To listen to me." James stared at the origin of these words, for he would never have expected Shannyn to speak to him, let alone be an accomplice to his kidnapping. And from the tone in her voice she meant business, though what business he wasn't quite sure at the moment. Sirius was watching his best friend with a smug look on his face. It was a brilliant idea to have Shannyn do the talking, for James could hardly avoid believing her.

"We have brought you here," she continued, "slightly against your will," another scoff from James in Sirius' direction, "to tell you something for your benefit. I am aware that for most of the last six years you have had a useless and unrequited crush on my best friend…"

"What!" Bellowed an irate James. "You guys brought me down here to beat me up some more about Lily? And you included Shannyn in this?"

"Calm down and hear the lady out, James." As promised, Remus was there to calm things down, and he felt it was high time he stepped in to fulfill his duty. "You might actually be glad about their interference at the end." Sirius was grateful for the comment, for James always believed Remus more readily than he believed Sirius, and because it had caused James to stop staring daggers at Sirius so that he could stare daggers at Remus instead.

"As I was saying," Shannyn began once more, once she was sure that James would hear her out, "until recently it was quite apparent that Lily would rather eat dung worms than come within five feet of you. However," she continued overriding James' sputtered attempts to interrupt her, "she clearly no longer feels this way." Shannyn paused to watch the effect of these words on James. He already knew this, of course, but hearing it from Lily's best friend made it all the more real to him. "In fact, I believe that Lily may actually be beginning to, uh, how should I say it… reciprocate some of your feelings." James stopped sputtering. "Now, she will never admit this, even to me, but I'm not stupid and I've known her for a long time. So now the question is what are you going to do with this information." She looked at James to make sure she had his full and undivided attention before continuing,

"I will not allow you to hurt her, or use this information against her, or in any way maliciously treat her, without suffering somewhat unpleasant consequences—and believe me, you do not want to suffer my wrath—but there are many acceptable uses for what I have just told you. Obviously, it is necessary that you do not tell Lily that I broke her trust, as it will just cause her to hate both you and me, and once again invoke my wrath, but this does not prohibit you from acting on this information. Am I understood?"

And she fixed James with such a look that he began to realize just why he did not want to face her wrath. But these thoughts were shortly driven out of his mind by much more pleasant ruminations. For the first time in seven years he had a fighting chance to win over the girl of his dreams, and the thought produced such an expression of joy on his face that Shannyn began for the first time to realize just why her best friend was falling head over heels in love with the boy sitting in front of her. James began to get up and walk absentmindedly back to the castle when he was pulled into the air by his angles and found himself hanging upside down facing an irate brunette.

"Potter, I would like an answer before I let you leave."

"Um, sorry, bit distracted… I understand, and… thank you." She nodded curtly and let him down, and then herself retreated to the castle.


	5. Some More Interference

Chapter 5: Some More Interference and the Uses James Find for His New Information

It was a very good thing that Shannyn and Sirius had planned their attack on James for a Saturday morning, for he was utterly useless for the rest of the day. Nothing that didn't involve Lily was capable of penetrating into his mind, and most of the day was spent in trying desperately to decide what he was going to do with the information that he had been given. His immediate inclination had been to storm the castle, grab Lily, and kiss her so fiercely that she fully comprehended just how much he was in love with her. But he doubted whether Shannyn would feel such a thing to fall within the guidelines she had given him. It had taken nearly seven years for Lily to begin to reciprocate his feelings and he didn't want to mess that up simply because he was too impatient to snog her to think things through. He was going to use his head on this one, for it was too important not to.

Over the last month James had fallen completely in love with Lily, the real Lily that no one else knew as he did, and it wasn't until this moment that he fully comprehended this fact. Last year, if someone had told him that Lily liked him his immediate response would have been along the lines of grabbing her, snogging her, and then saying casually, "So, I heard you liked me." But now, well now Lily was more than just a pretty face, now she was his friend, someone he valued for what was inside her head as well as how she looked. So he had to be careful.

In addition, for the remainder of that day and most of the following morning James constantly found Sirius and Shannyn turning up to check on him. This in and of itself presented an interesting thought to his mind—Sirius and Shannyn, didn't they go well together—which was quickly surpassed when Lily walked by. James smiled weakly at her and promptly ran scampering in the other direction.

Little did James realize the consequences of that mad dash. Lily had grown used to having James be her best friend, and she liked it that way. Now she thought that he had grown sick of her, that maybe he didn't like her anymore, that maybe he had discovered that she liked him and he new he didn't feel the same way. These thoughts terrified the red-head. So she, too, spent a sleepless Saturday night wondering what to do, and building up enough courage to do what she thought she needed to do.

Lily woke up rather late on Sunday morning to find Shannyn sitting on the end of her bed.

"Hey, sleepyhead. I didn't think you were ever going to wake up."

"Took me awhile to fall asleep last night."

"I noticed." Shannyn lay down next to her friend, watching her intently, and said, "So are you going to tell me what's up?"

"Nothing… I'm fine."

"Yeah, like I believe that. I'm not stupid Lil, I know you like James," Lily whipped her head over to stare at her friend. "The question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"Um, well… why should I do anything about it?"

"Because, you are miserable, and I hate seeing you this way."

"But, he probably doesn't feel the same way, and he has been acting weird lately, especially yesterday, and…"

"Did it ever occur to you that that might be because he has been in love with you for seven years and he just can't work up the courage to tell you so, now that you are actually speaking to him, that is."

"Why would you think that?"

"I've been watching him. The boy just can't keep his eyes off of you, and he can barely force himself to keep his hands off of you." Lily's eyes lit up, and a faint smile brushed across her lips.

"Oh, well, I don't know. I'll think about it, okay? But I need to go soon, I have to meet with Professor McGonagall."

Shannyn watched as Lily got ready for the day. She watched as Lily put on a stylish pair of jeans with embroidered flowers up the side and a tight black tank top with a pale green sweater over it. She watched as she carefully did her hair with thick curls cascading down her back. She watched as she put on makeup and silver earrings. As Lily took one last look at herself in the mirror Shannyn finally said something.

"Looking pretty good for McGonagall." Lily blushed furiously. "Like I don't know that you meet James every Sunday for a casual stroll around the lake." Lily turned around in amazement, but before she could say anything Shannyn got up and walked out of the dormitory, pausing at the door to say, "You don't have to lie to me anymore, Lil."

Shannyn walked all the way through the common room and out the portrait hole, and then down a deserted corridor to where a dark shape stood in the shadows. As she came nearer, the shape materialized into the ruggedly handsome Sirius Black, who sidled up and slid his arm around her waist.

"How did she take it?"

"Just fine, and I would thank you not to treat me like one of those girls whose sole mission in life is to flirt with you. Get your hands off of me." And with that she side-stepped out of his arm and walked off, leaving a stunned Sirius in her wake. No girl had ever dared to treat him like Shannyn just had.

Meanwhile, Lily finally came down the stairs and stealthily exited the castle. She walked around to the far side of the lake to where James stood leaning against a huge oak tree waiting for her. She noticed that James, too, looked as if he had spent extra time on his appearance this morning. His designer jeans nicely complemented the slightly tight shirt that subtly showed off the muscles he had from years of playing Quidditch. She noticed all of this quickly and looked up into his face to see that he was staring at her. A brilliant smile and a faint blush rose in her face.

"Hi, James."

"Lil, you look beautiful."

"Why thank you Mr. Potter."

He stepped up to her side and they walked, side by side, for several quite minutes. This was one of their favorite things, to just quietly enjoy each others company. James said that the mark of a true friend was whether they could be in your company for hours without the need to talk, simply enjoying your presence. But today the quiet was not pleasant, but awkward and filled with tension. With Shannyn's words ringing through her mind, however, Lily soon spoke up.

"James, is something wrong?"

"Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. I just have the feeling that maybe you don't want to spend time with me anymore. That maybe you are sick of me."

"Lil, I could never be sick of you."

"Then why did you run away from me yesterday?"

"Because… I needed time to figure out how to tell you something." James stopped and reached out a hand to gently turn Lily to face him. "Lil, I…" he took a step closer to her, causing her breath to catch. "I have a confession to make." He got closer still, so that she had to tilt her head up to look into his eyes. James reached up and gently pulled a stray piece of hair into place behind her ear.

"Lil, I love you."

She stared at him, unable to breathe or think or move, unable to fully comprehend what it was he had just said.

"I fell for you the day I met you, you know that, but things are different now. Then I liked you because you were beautiful and different. Now I love you, because you're my best friend and you understand me, and you give my life meaning. Because you make me want to be a better person. Because my whole world revolves around you. I love you."

She stared into his eyes, nearly losing herself in their rich hazel color. And all power of speech left her. But she needed to say something, she knew he was waiting for her to say something, but she no longer even remembered how to say her own name. So she did the only thing she could. She put her hands on his shoulders, and gently pulled herself up to brush her lips on his.

She heard a sharp intake of breathe from James, and then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back up to meet him. But he didn't waste any time with a soft and quick kiss, he kissed her so that she knew exactly how much he did love her, so that there was no doubt in her mind that his world completely revolved around her. And he didn't let go very quickly.

A/N: LilyPotterGirl, I want this story to go all the way till the death of Lily and James, so I imagine it might get fairly long.


	6. New Beginnings, Again

Chapter 6: New Beginnings, Again

At about nine that night Sirius, trailed by three extremely giggling girls, emerged into the Gryffindor common room and looked around for James, completely ignoring the girls who were trying desperately to get his attention. Not finding James in the crowd, Sirius instead made his way over to the corner where Shannyn was curled up in an armchair, reading a novel and alternately crying and laughing hysterically. When he reached her she had silent tears running down her face. Quietly, Sirius kneeled down next to her and gently brushed the tears off of her cheeks. Startled, Shannyn looked up at him.

"Shann, have you seen Lily and James tonight?"

"Um, I don't think they ever came in from their walk."

"Oh." A grin broke out on his face. "So things must have gone well?"

"I would say so. You have to really like someone to spend ten hours snogging them, don't you? Although I suppose they could have been talking for _some_ of that time."

"You are evil, sometimes Shann, do you know that?"

"Only every other day." She grinned up at him, then lightly pushed him away from her. "Now go away, I want to finish my book." Sirius obeyed, but not without asking himself just how many girls would have the strength to send him away. But he soon answered his own question, only Shannyn.

In actuality, James and Lily never came back in that night. When Lily walked into her tower bedroom half an hour before classes started the next morning Shannyn rounded on her and demanded, "Where have you been?"

"Oh, well… with James."

"LILY!"

"Wait," she responded quickly, "it's not what you think. We were talking most of the evening and then we sat down to watch the sunset over the lake and we both fell asleep." Lily looked guiltily at her friend, but Shannyn did not appear convinced, so Lily continued. "I mean, he did kiss me, and tell me he loves me, but nothing else happened, I promise."

"He said he _loved_ you? Already?"

"Yeah, I know. It shocked me, too. But…" she hesitated, "I might… I mean… It just felt right to wake up in his arms."

"Holy cow, Lil. Last week you supposedly hated the guy and now you are just about telling me you love him. Moving a little fast, aren't we?"

"I know. I'm just confused is all. I just… I need to go get ready." And Lily ducked all further questions by spending the next half hour in a mad dash to make her self presentable. But Shannyn noticed that, once again, her friend was paying an unusual amount of attention to the way she looked.

However, that little bit of extra time sure paid off, for when Lily walked down the stairs, with Shannyn trailing behind her, James, who had been talking to Sirius and Remus and waiting for Lily, looked around at her, stared, and completely forgot that he had been in the middle of a sentence, for he was too busy starring at Lily. She walked shyly up to him, and he pulled her into him with his hands placed gently around her slender waist. He whispered something in her ear that made her blush, and then he gently pressed his lips to hers.

"Well, Prongs, when you get the girl you sure do get her good." Sirius broke in several minutes later. Lily pulled away from James and turned to look at Sirius.

"You know, Sirius, you shouldn't invoke my wrath. You frightened James with Shann's wrath and I taught her all she knows."

"You know!" Sirius sputtered.

"James told me about your little bit of interference last night."

"And you're not mad?" A shocked Shannyn asked.

"No, just don't do it again. James will lose all his good looks if you two keep hanging him from his ankles." And Lily broke into peals of laughter, pulling James out of the portrait hole by his hand.

"You know," Sirius said thoughtfully, "I think that James has been good for her."

"Well," responded the fiery brunette, "Hopefully it's mutual. Anyone would be a good influence on him after he's spent the last seven years doing everything you say." And she walked out of the portrait hole, leaving a thoroughly startled Sirius Black staring at her retreating back.

Sirius was in a different situation then he had ever been in. He had never had a girl treat him the way Shannyn treated him, and it was starting to bug him a little. He spent several minutes staring broodingly into the fire and pondering just why this upset him so much, but he was brought back to reality when a giggling girl came over and sat next to him, trying to get his attention. Then it hit him. Shannyn was the first girl (other than Lily, but he had never been allowed to be interested in her, James had seen to that) that had ever had the nerve to ignore him when he paid attention to her. Maybe James was right, maybe it was time to move on to a serious relationship, maybe he was just falling for Shannyn.

Sirius shook himself abruptly. He had to stop thinking like that. There was a reason that Shannyn ignored all his charms, she did not want a man like Sirius, she wasn't that type of girl. There were plenty of girls who wanted him, he reminded himself. So Sirius did the reasonable thing, he turned to the giggling girl next to him, wrapped his arm casually around her shoulders, and escorted her out of the common room. He didn't see the brunette who was sitting on the floor outside the portrait hole, finishing an essay for potions. He didn't see her look after him with green fire shooting through her eyes.

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James was having a bad time of it. He had finally gotten the girl of his dreams, and he had expected his school performance to return to a relatively normal level of excellence. This, however, was not the case. His potion had turned a congealed red mess in the bottom of his cauldron because he kept looking up at Lily and smiling shyly whenever he caught her doing the same thing. And his transfiguration notes had huge scratches written across it, each caused by Lily quietly slipping her small hand into his under the table. The feel of her hand in his sent shivers up his entire body that ruined all of his concentration ability. By the time lunch came around, he had had enough trying to concentrate on school work. And he had to do something about it.

So when McGonagall finally let them out of class James grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her down the hall. He lead her around the corner and pulled her through a door hidden behind a tapestry of several wizards gathered around a herd of unicorns.

"James," she looked up at him questioningly. "What's wrong? What are we doing here?"

James didn't answer her. Instead he gently backed her up against the wall and cradled her head with his hands, twisting his fingers into her red curls. Then he slowly brought his mouth down to seek hers.

He finally pulled away from her, and gently brushed her hair back behind her ears. Staring into her deep green eyes he let out a longing sigh.

"Lily, I love you."

"I know James."

"I love everything about you, Lil. And I've loved you for years."

Lily stared into his hazel eyes. She knew what he wanted her to say. He wanted her to return the sentiment. But she couldn't, not yet. She couldn't answer him. It was too soon, and he, he was… well, he was _James_. And she was having a little difficulty fully reconciling herself to the idea that he wasn't going to treat her like he had treated every other girl he had ever dated. But she was thinking too much, and she could think of much better uses for her time. Like kissing James…

A\N: My writing is sometimes a little sporadic, so I can't promise that my updating will be the most regular. But I still love to hear your ideas. I want to carry this story all the way through the day that Lily and James die, and then I plan on adding an epilogue that takes place after the seventh book. But in the meantime, I'll try to add chapters as often as I can. Enjoy and let me know what you think. I'm open to suggestions.

LilyPotterGirl, I know that Lily seems out of character, but she has some issues. As the story progresses we will begin to see reasons for why she seems to be a commitment phobe. But remember, she has never had a boyfriend before and James is the second (to Sirius) biggest player in the school, that is quite a lot to take on. And Lily has this thing about trust. Once you loose her trust it is very hard for you to gain it back. I am not going to give a girl to Remus, as that doesn't seem to fit with his persona as it relates to Tonks later.


	7. Revelations and Full Moons

Chapter 7: Revelations and Full Moons

Two weeks had passed, and Lily and James' budding romance was the talk of the school. This was fueled to even larger proportions by the fact that James couldn't keep his hands to himself. He seemed to feel that any moment without Lily's hand in his own was a moment wasted. But Lily was quite happy with this situation. James was being perfect, and she was starting to think that maybe she might be falling in love with him.

"So Mr. Potter," she turned her head to look up at him from where she was nestled in the crook of his arm. "What is it that we are going to do tonight?" James looked hastily down at her, and then glanced over at Remus, who was watching James with a scared look in his eyes.

"Um, Lil, I can't tonight. The guys and I have plans." James guiltily avoided looking into her eyes. Which means he missed the hurt look that appeared there, the look of betrayal.

"Oh, okay. Well, I need to go work on some homework…" Her voice trailed off vaguely as she extracted herself from his arms and darted up the stairs.

"Lily?" James called desperately after her. Then he looked around at his friends. "What just happened?"

"Sorry James," Remus responded. "Sorry to put you in this situation. You don't have to come tonight."

"Moony, I have never missed a full moon, and I never plan on doing so. I'll just talk to her tomorrow and smooth it all out."

"Are you sure, Prongs?"

"Yes! Come on, it's almost time. I'll go get the cloak, meet you guys down here in five."

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_I can't believe he just ditched me! Yesterday he is telling me how he loves me and can't stand to spend another minute without me, and today he is ditching me! Well I'm not going to take that! I'm going to find out what it is that they are up to, what it is that is more important than spending time with me… They had better not be pulling another prank on some poor unsuspecting kid… _

Lily snuck down the stairs and caught sight of the four boys heading out of the portrait hole. She quickly followed them, only to see the four of them disappear underneath a cloak.

"What in the world?" she quietly muttered to herself. But her prey turning invisible was not enough to deter Lily Evans, she happened to be quiet a proficient student of charms, and so she murmured a quick spell, one that allowed her to hear the excited whispering of the four boys hidden underneath the cloak as if they were standing six inches in front of her. Smiling to herself, she stealthily followed their whisperings as they threaded their way through the castle and out onto the grounds. The boys led her into the shadow of that crazy tree they had planted her first year, the Whomping Willow. Then they disappeared beneath the roots of the tree.

_Holy Cow! What are they up to! Oh my gosh! I'm dating a freak! Oh no! They are probably doing something illegal! Oh my goodness! What if they are thieves! What if they are hurting someone! Oh no! What have I gotten myself into? This is so messed up! I knew I shouldn't have trusted him! I knew he was going to hurt me, I knew it and I let myself get involved anyways. What came over me. Some silly guy tells me he loves me and I completely forget everything. I let myself get caught up in it all and forget to think. Oh, I am so going to kill him! _

_What if they are meeting some girls in there? What if he is cheating on me? Or even worse, if he doesn't love me anymore and he is going to dump me! I knew it! We have been together barely two weeks and he is already sick of me, just like he got sick of every other girl he ever dated. He is going to dump me and break my heart! I'm going to murder him!_

Lily got increasingly angrier as the sun set beyond the lake and the full moon began to rise over the forest. She could imagine no good reason for the four boys to be where they were, and so her overactive mind made up a plethora of bad ones. Once she had exhausted all possible reasons for their being where they were she then proceeded to imagine exactly how she would yell at them when they emerged. This happened sooner than she was expecting.

As soon as the full moon had completely cleared the tree tops she saw movement at the base of the willow. She stood up, preparing to begin a yelling tirade, and then froze. The thing emerging from the tree was not the shape of any of the four boys. Instead, out bounded a dog, a stag, a rat, and… _a werewolf!_

Lily froze, unable to move, as she watched the werewolf slowly stop, sniff the air, and turn to look at her. A growl escaped from its mouth, and it slowly began to move towards her.

Suddenly she found her voice and began to scream hysterically as she frantically backed away. But she had no chance; she would never be able to outrun a werewolf. She was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it.

But as the wolf slowly advanced towards her a frantic bellow erupted from the roots of the tree. The stag was charging the wolf and bellowing in frustration. It caught the wolf in the stomach with its head and dragged him back away from Lily. She watched, terrified, as they fought a terrific battle. The wolf was straining with every muscle to get to Lily and the stag was fighting back equally hard to keep him from doing so. Soon the large black dog joined the fight and succeeded in pulling the wolf back into the tunnel at the base of the willow. The rat followed the dog, but the stag remained where he was, and then slowly turned to face Lily where she was frozen in place.

Slowly, the stag changed shape, and turned into James Potter.

"James… but, how…" Lily sputtered, "I don't understand…"

"Lils, I'm sorry you had to find out that way. But I couldn't let Moony hurt you."

"Moony? Do you mean that was Remus?"

"Yes, but Lil, he didn't mean too. He's not exactly himself right now…"

"How could you? How could you keep something like this from me?"

"Lil, I…"

"No! Stay away from me! I can't believe you! You lied to me! How am I ever supposed to trust you again! I never want to see you again! You hear? Stay away from me, James Potter!"

James stared after her. He made to run and catch her, but instead he fell to the ground. As he slowly faded out of consciousness a whisper escaped his lips.

"Lily… but I love you…"

A/N: Any you all thought I made them get together too quickly! Although she may have admitted to liking him, Lily still has major issues to overcome before they can be happily ever after.

Also, I just had a strong desire to leave you with a cliff hanger…

I know that this doesn't seem to be very Lily like, but she has some issues that she needs to work through before she can completely trust James. And I couldn't make it that easy for James to get her.

RandomObsessivePsychoFangirl, Lily thinks that James lied to her. In her mind he should have told her that he was an animagus. That is a huge part of his life and he didn't share it with her. That and Lily has commitment issues.


	8. The Marauder's Tale

Chapter 8: The Marauder's Tale

Lily didn't sleep that night. She spent the night curled up on a chair in the corner of the common room, staring into the fire. She was reliving all the events of the night before: Remus a werewolf trying to kill her, James an animagus, James had lied to her, she had broken up with him… There was no end to the thoughts running through her mind. And she was furious at James, for lying to her. But at the same time, she kept on seeing the look on his face when she said she never wanted to see him again, and hearing the cry of anguish he made when the werewolf started to go after her. And he had saved her…

But that made no difference. She could not date someone who lied to her. She had done the right thing.

She tossed and turned, then buried her head into her pillow and sobbed as she never had before. She had always felt that it was too good to be true, that James was just going to hurt her like he had hurt every other girl he had ever dated, and she was right. He had hurt her like no one else ever had, and she could never forgive him. So instead she cried into her pillow all night long, trying desperately to muffle the sound so that she wouldn't wake anyone else.

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James wasn't in class the next day. Lily was sure that it was just that he was trying to avoid her. She couldn't blame him; she didn't want to see him either.

But when James was not to be seen for the next two days after that, Lily began to think it was a little unusual. Of course, it was none of her business anymore, she told herself. If James cared as little about his school work as he seemed to care about her then it was no concern of hers.

On the third day, Lily walked out of dinner to find an extremely nervous Remus waiting for her in the entrance hall. Lily stopped at the sight of him.

"Um, Lily, Can I talk to you?" He asked shyly.

"Um, okay…"

"We might want to go somewhere else; this isn't exactly the kind of conversation I want overheard."

"Sure. Come on, I know a great place we can talk." Lily started walking up the large staircase towards her special room on the seventh floor, but she quickly stopped. Remus was hobbling behind her in evident pain. "Remus, are you okay?"

"Well, let's just say that James and Sirius weren't exceptionally nice in their treatment of me the other night. Actually, I just got out of the Hospital Wing this morning…"

"Sirius? The dog was Sirius?"

"Yeah… well, I'll tell you the whole story soon. Anyways, they were slightly brutal. Not that I can blame them. I'm glad I didn't hurt you, Lily." He looked up at her, pleading in his eyes.

"Well, come here Remus." She went over and took his arm. "I'll help you up." He beamed at her, grateful for her acceptance of him without question.

When they reached the deserted hallway on the seventh floor Remus got a faint glimmer in his eyes.

"So, James has shown you the Room of Requirements, has he?"

"The what?"

Remus didn't answer. Instead he walked up and down the hall three times until an ornate door appeared in the wall. This he opened and ushered Lily inside.

"But, this isn't my room. Last time it was my room…"

"Yeah, it changes depending on what you ask it to become. Come on, I need to tell you a story. You need to understand." He guided her over to a large couch, and stared down at his hands for a few seconds, as if he were steeling himself to do something, something hard and painful. Then he went on.

"This all starts with my becoming a werewolf as a child. Because of that, I was a lonely kid, my parents were too afraid to let me get close to anyone, fearful that I might hurt them. They had good reason, when I transform I have no control over my actions and it is very hard to keep me from hurting those around me. What I almost did to you last night…"

"Remus, it's okay. I'm fine, no harm done." She smiled at him, and was rewarded with a faint smile of his own.

"Thanks Lily. Very few people would be so forgiving and understanding. You truly are special. No wonder James is so in love with you." She stirred uneasily, but he didn't allow her to interrupt him. "Well, back to my story. When I came to school Professor Dumbledore made extensive provisions so that I would not harm any of my fellow students. He had the Shrieking Shack built for my use and a tunnel dug to it with the Whomping Willow protecting the entrance. I can go there to transform and am isolated from all humans that I might harm.

"When I first came I was very unwilling to let any of the students here get close enough to be my friend. I didn't want anyone close enough to me that they would want to know my secret. But my resolution was in vain. I made three best friends. Soon, they were not satisfied with various excuses on where I went every month, and quickly enough they discovered my secret.

"To help me, they undertook the immense task of becoming animagi themselves so that they could keep me company. I was not dangerous to them when they were animals. We soon discovered that Sirius and James were large enough animals that they could keep me in control. So we began roaming the grounds. We had great fun every month, discovering all the secrets of Hogwarts. It was our tradition.

"Hence the reason that James didn't want to spend that night with you. You see, we have spent every full moon together for years, he couldn't ruin that tradition." He stopped and looked at her intently for a few moments, for he knew what he had to say next would give her pain.

"Lily, there's something you need to know." He sighed, forcing himself to go on. "James is in the hospital wing." Lily's eyes snapped up to Remus' face, and he could see a hint of concern in their green depths.

"What! What is wrong with James?"

"I hurt him pretty bad when he wouldn't let me get to you that night. Meaning, of course, that I nearly ripped his insides out of his body, broke five ribs, punctured a lung, and broke his leg." Remus gave a wry smile. "I guess I can be a little brutal sometimes. Anyways, I'll continue. When you left him, well, let's just say that we didn't find him until morning and by then he was unconscious and had severe blood loss and many injuries. Madam Pomfrey has had her hands full trying to fix him up. It hasn't helped that James refuses to tell her what happened to him, I think he lost a fair amount of points because of that, actually.

"Anyways, he is finally getting better, but it was pretty bad for awhile." He watched her eyes brim with tears, but she fought herself and grim determination spread across her face. So he continued. "I think it was worse because, well, because of you." She looked at him questioningly, and he rushed ahead, "he keeps on having nightmares that he wasn't able to stop me, that I hurt you. He would wake up screaming that you were dying. It would take me a long time to calm him down, and even longer to assure him that you were fine. But then he would remember that you were no longer his. And it would destroy him. Lily, it is killing him."

"That is not my fault, Remus."

"I know, but he truly loves you Lily. Do you think you might be able to go visit him? You don't have to take him back, Lily, just go to help him get over this."

"Remus! I'm glad that you told me, and I don't blame you for anything, and I'm glad that James is doing better, but that doesn't change things. He lied to me, Remus. And I can no longer trust him. It just can't work out, that's all. I'm sorry, Remus, I really am."

"Lily, you should give him a chance. It is really hard to share that kind of secret with someone. I would know. I have a little secret of my own that is hard to share with the people I love." He smiled ruefully. "So just think about it, okay?"

"Remus, I…" she saw the look in his eyes, and she just couldn't deny him, "I'll think about it."

"Thanks, Lil. And thanks for understanding my 'furry little problem'." He gave her a wry smile, and then headed out of the door, leaving Lily to think things through on her own.

A/N: I hope you like! Things are going to get better between Lily and James soon, I promise.


	9. The Ride of Prongs

Chapter 9: The Ride of Prongs

_The light of the moon was shining across the grounds, and Lily was standing terrified, unable to move, as the werewolf slowly moved towards her. But James couldn't move; he was helpless as the werewolf advanced on Lily, as it grabbed her, as it slowly tore into her perfect body…_

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!" James woke up screaming, tossing and turning in the hospital bed. Sweat was running down his face and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Madam Pomfrey ran out of her office.

"Mr. Potter, what is wrong? Are you okay? Calm down, Mr. Potter!"

"I'm okay… I just had a nightmare… I'll be okay."

"Well, if you're sure. Try to get some sleep, Mr. Potter."

James fell back into his bed, trying to calm himself down. It wasn't true, anyways. He had saved Lily; she was going to be okay, even if she never wanted to see him again…

James rolled over and buried his face into the pillow. _I lost Lily!_ He started pummeling the mattress with his fists, trying to release some of the emptiness and horror inside him. But nothing he could do would change the fact that he lost the girl of his dreams, the girl he thought he couldn't live without, the girl he loved with all his heart. And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Then he sat up. He was James Potter. He wasn't going to give her up that easily. He loved her, after all, and he never backed down from a challenge. He would go to her, he would make her understand, and he would get her back.

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James didn't get out of the hospital wing for over a week. It took that long for Madam Pomfrey to convince herself that he was going to be okay. But as far as he was concerned that was okay, for he figured that the longer Lily had to think things over the more receptive she would be towards forgiving him. And he secretly wanted her to have plenty of time to worry about him. Maybe it would help her realize that she really did love him if she thought he might not make it.

When Madam Pomfrey finally released him on Monday morning (she had held him up for one last check up) James headed reluctantly down to the potions lab. He was already late, and he wasn't sure he was ready to see Lily yet.

Sure enough, when he walked in and headed to his seat in the back he saw Lily look up at him briefly. She turned bright red and then buried herself in her potions book, refusing to look up for the rest of the class. When the bell finally rang signally the end of class, James raced after Lily's quickly retreating form, trying to catch her.

"Lily…" he called desperately after her, fighting his way through the crowd.

But she was long gone.

This continued for three days. Three days of torture, as far as James was concerned. He was even more useless than he had been before he had got the girl. He had dreamed about her for so long, and then he had had her. And it had been even more amazing than he had dreamed possible. And now that he had he couldn't imagine going back to life without her. He had to get her back, no matter the cost; he would make her understand, make her forgive him and take him back.

But first he had to catch her…

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By Wednesday night he had enough. He waited anxiously outside the portrait hole for her to return after dinner, determined to catch her this time. But he had learned caution; he was hiding down the hall so that she wouldn't see him and bolt as soon as she did as she had been doing for the last three days. When she finally came around the corner he raced forward, grabbed her arm, and, ignoring her sputtered protests, he dragged her down the hall until they were alone.

Even though she was fighting against him as he held her, Lily still refused to look into his eyes. He thought that this was because she was so angry at him that she didn't even want to look at him, but he was wrong. Lily was refusing to meet his gaze because she knew that once she did her resolve would disappear. Her mind was still angry at him for lying to her, still convinced that the relationship could only end in heartbreak, but her heart was telling a different story. And she knew that if once she allowed herself to look into his hazel eyes then the weakening protests in her mind would stand no chance.

But James did not know this. He did, however, know that he needed her to look him in the eyes so that she could read the truth: that he loved her and would never hurt her.

To this end, he took both her arms and shoved her back against the wall so that she had no way out.

"James! Let me go! I said I never wanted to speak to you again!"

"No, Lily. I love you, and I am going to force you to hear me out." She was bright red and angry, but she was stuck, and she knew it.

"I am sorry that I lied to you. But you have to understand, if I had told you I would have had to told you why I was an animagus, and that would lead to Moony's, well, his 'furry little problem', and that is not my secret to tell." There was pleading in his eyes, though she couldn't see it. Pleading that was running underneath all of his words. "I will never lie to you again, Lily. That night, when I thought I was going to lose you, I promised myself that I would never put you in a situation that could get you hurt because of my stupidity. I promised myself that I would never lie to you again."

She wouldn't even look up at him, and James got desperate; he had to make her look at him.

"Lily, please. I can't stand to lose you. I thought I was going to lose you that night and it nearly killed me, I can't go through that again. Lily, please look at me…"

Tears were running down Lily's face as she fought within herself.

"Lily, I love you more than life itself, and I can't lose you." The hands that were holding her in place began to shake with uncontrollable emotion. "Please, just look at me…"

She slowly brought her head up until her eyes were looking into his. And deep in his hazel eyes she read the truth. He really did love her, and he would stand by his promise. He would never lie to her again. She could see that. And finally, Lily realized that she could trust him. She realized that she never wanted to be without him again, and that he would be there for her, no matter what, that he would never leave her.

Lily slowly reached up and placed her hands on the back of James' neck. She brought his head down to meet hers and responded to the look in his eyes by a kiss on his lips. James responded in kind, and for several minutes the only thought in his mind was the sheer joy of having Lily back. But then he pulled back from her, a sly smile on his face.

"Lily…" he whispered.

"Yes, James."

"Get on."

A devilish grin broke out on his face for a few brief seconds, and then standing in his place was a beautiful white stag. Lily laughed with joy, and pulled herself onto his back. She grabbed onto his neck as he reared onto his hind legs, and then they took off through the castle.

They escaped out the front doors without anyone noticing—good thing, too, for Lily didn't know how she would have explained the large stag she was riding—and then James took off around the lake. He seemed to know the grounds better than even Hagrid did. Probably because of the many nights he had spent wandering around during the full moon. And even though it was dark and late, Lily felt no fear, for she knew that James would protect her from anything.

He took her on a ride around the lake and through some of the less scary parts of the forest, and then brought her to a secluded grove of trees on the far side of the lake that she didn't think she had ever seen before. Once there she slowly climbed off of his back and watched as James appeared once more in front of her.

"Thanks for the ride, Prongs." She smiled at him as she took a step towards him.

"Now you know how I got the nickname." She laughed, and then looked down shyly.

"James, I… I love you."

"Oh, Lily…" he grabbed her hand and puller her to him. He wrapped one arm around her waste and used the other to gently tilt her head up so he could look into her eyes, those beautiful green eyes. Slowly, he brought her up to meet his mouth.

_Wow,_ Lily thought,_ I should almost get killed more often if this is how he kisses me afterwards._ But that was all the thought she was allowed, for James was demanding all of her attention. He had never kissed her so deeply and so passionately before, and it was wonderful. But soon he pushed her away from him.

"James, what's wrong." He was holding her away from him.

"Lil, I think we should stop there. Let me just hold you, okay?" She smiled at him. _He is so sweet!_ He sat down and pulled her down to sit curled up in his lap. He slowly stroked her hair as she rested her head on his chest. And the only thought in his mind was that he had to be the luckiest man in the world, for he was with the most beautiful creature in the world, and she loved him.

And so they sat all night, with their hands entwined together. In the early hours of the morning, Lily began to shiver with the cold, and James folded her in his arms and conjured a large warm blanket around them. He buried his face into her hair and whispered into her ear,

"Lil, I never want to be parted from you again…"

She turned her head and looked into his eyes. And for the first time in seven years James looked into the green orbs of his dreams and saw there that his love was finally reciprocated.

"Well, Mr. Potter, I'll have to see what I can do about that." She grinned, and digging her hands out of the folds of blanket, she reached up and wound her fingers into his wild and unruly hair, messing it up even more. He stared transfixed into her eyes as she grinned mischievously and turned herself around so that she was straddling his waist and had her face inches from his own. "I do believe that it is about time you kissed me."

James didn't need to be told twice. He pulled her into him even more and sought her mouth with his own. After several minutes she pulled away a fraction of an inch and whispered,

"So, never going to lie to me again, are you?"

"Are you kidding? Never! You sure do have excellent ways to motivate a guy, Miss Evans…"

"You ain't seen nothing yet…"

A/N: I know that some of you didn't like Lily's behavior in the last few chapters, but this will be explained shortly. She had good reasons for believing James would leave her and hurt her, and she needed to learn that she could fully trust him before she could admit to being in love.


	10. Romance Flourishes

Chapter 10: Romance Flourishes under the Strangest of Circumstances

Sirius was depressed. He didn't grudge James the relationship he now shared with Lily, but he still missed his best friend. James was still up for a good prank or two, but only on those nights when Lily had decided that she needed to study on her own. When Lily was around, James just simply didn't have eyes for anyone else. Sirius was happy for his best friend, especially considering how long James had waited for this relationship to happen, but that didn't stop him from getting lonely. Remus was too good a kid to share in James and Sirius' usual activities, and Peter was too boring to have fun with them, so when James was with Lily Sirius had no choice but to be bored, very bored. He had taken to wandering around in a morose mood, prowling the corridors and looking for something, anything, to do.

He would even have been grateful for a good old fashioned fight with old Snivellus.

It was during one of these nighttime wanderings that Sirius found himself listening to a conversation he most certainly was not meant to hear. A conversation between Shannyn and the Ravenclaw keeper Jared Dent.

Jared was tall and lanky, with curly blond hair and startlingly blue eyes. He might have had quite a fan base among the female population if he hadn't freaked most of them out by third year. No one had actually accused him of doing anything wrong, but every time he dated a girl it would seem wonderful for a few days until they would all of the sudden break up, and the girl would be extremely quite and depressed for months. It was kind of eerie. Even Sirius, who had dated his fair share of the female population of Hogwarts, had not left so many disgruntled ex-girlfriends in his wake. Sirius was about to find out why this was.

Jared had Shannyn backed into a dark corner, his hands on either side of her, preventing her making any kind of escape.

"Come on, Shannyn. Why won't you go out with me?"

"I'm just not interested in you, Jared, as I told you the last six times you asked me out. It's nothing personal, I just don't really want that in my life right now…"

"Oh, come on baby, you know you would just love to go out with me."

"First of all, don't ever call me that. Second of all, I already told you no, several times, in fact."

Jared's hands grabbed Shannyn's shoulders, pinning her to the wall. Then he tried to forcibly kiss her, but Shannyn had her hands up, blocking her face.

"Jared! Get off of me!" She struggled with him for several more minutes. "Why would you even want to date me anyways, I'm not your usual type."

"Well, let's just say I like them pure. Gives me the thrill of breaking them…"

It was at this point that Sirius stumbled upon the not-so-pleasant conversation. He didn't need to hear more than that last line, followed my Shannyn's continued efforts to push Jared off of her, before he had his wand out. With a terrific bang Jared was blasted off of the brunette to land in a heap on the floor. But it wasn't Sirius who had acted. Even though she didn't have her wand out, Shannyn had repelled the boy on her own. But this didn't stop Sirius from getting angry, really angry.

"Stay away from her, you filthy pervert!" Sirius was in a rage. With every word he was shooting hexes at the crumpled form on the ground until Jared didn't look like a seventeen year old boy so much as a lab rat in the Ministry of Magic's Spell Creation Ward. When Sirius was satisfied that Jared would not be able to move in the near future, he lowered his wand and turned to look at Shannyn. She still stood in her corner, and she looked as if she would not be able to move on her own anytime soon.

"Shannyn?" Sirius walked over slowly. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head slightly as a single tear ran down her cheek. Sirius reached up and brushed it off with a finger. He had not even withdrawn his hand when Shannyn started shaking convulsively and then threw herself into Sirius' arms. He stood still for a split second, shocked and confused, and then he wrapped his arms around her. He stroked her hair and whispered,

"Don't worry, he can't hurt you. I'll make sure of that."

He held her there for several minutes, letting her calm down with her head buried deep into his chest, and when she didn't show any signs of calming down quickly, he leaned down, picked her easily up into his arms, and proceeded to carry her up to the seventh floor to a secret room where he knew she wouldn't be bothered. He deposited her on a couch, then retreated to a corner of the room and pulled a small mirror out of his pocket.

"James!" Sirius stood looking at his own reflection in the mirror for several minutes until the image suddenly morphed into that of James, looking slightly angry.

"Sirius! What are you bugging me for? You know I'm with…" James stopped at the look on Sirius' face. "Padfoot, what's wrong?"

"I'm fine, but you need to get Lily here, quick. Room of Requirements. Now."

"Okay, but why?"

"Just hurry."

Sirius put the mirror back into his pocket and began to pace up and down the room, listening to Shannyn sitting quietly on her couch, staring into the fire with a shocked look on her face. In about ten minutes the door was thrown open and James entered leading a thoroughly confused Lily by the hand. But when Lily saw Shannyn on the couch she immediately went to comfort her friend. James went to follow her, but Sirius stopped him.

"We should leave them alone." He said gruffly. James nodded and the two boys quietly left, leaving Lily to comfort her distraught friend. Once outside James turned to his friend.

"What happened, Padfoot? What's wrong with Shannyn?"

"You don't want to know, trust me."

"Is she going to be okay, do you think?"

"Oh, I'll see to that…" James didn't question anymore.

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The following morning, which was thankfully a Sunday, Sirius woke early, something he had never done before. He then grabbed his transfiguration book and headed down to the common room to 'study'. But this was just a pretext. Sirius never studied. What he was really doing was waiting for Shannyn to come down so that he could check on her. And he didn't have long to wait.

Maybe because she couldn't sleep, or maybe to avoid the crowds that would be around later, Shannyn headed down to get some breakfast at a relatively early hour. But when she saw Sirius sitting waiting for her she stopped, then walked up to him and sat down next to him, fidgeting with her hands.

"Sirius…" She fidgeted some more. "I just wanted to say thank you for… for last night…"

"Are you gonna be okay, Shann?"

"Yeah, I'll be alright. He didn't hurt me, just scared me."

"Good, cause I would have killed the jerk if he had hurt you." Shannyn smiled weakly at him. Then she froze. A gaggle of girls was coming down the staircase, chatting animatedly. Sirius could tell that she didn't want to face anyone right now.

"Do you want to head out to the grounds?" He asked gently. She nodded mutely, and he led her out of the castle, one arm wrapped protectively around her waist and the other hand clutching his wand. Shannyn smiled at the protective measures he was taking for her. Whatever his faults, and despite his constant desire to pull pranks and goof off, Sirius could not stand good people being truly hurt. He was a good kid, she thought to herself.

Once they were out of sight of the front doors Shannyn reached down and took his wand out of his tightly clenched fist and placed it back in his pocket. Then she took his hand in her own, causing Sirius to look down at her, a startled look in his eyes.

"You don't have to protect me anymore, but thank you anyways."

"I didn't have to protect you in the first place. In case you failed to notice, you were doing marvelously on your own." She grinned despite herself.

"I told you that you didn't want to see me get angry. But even though I may have repelled him, I'm not the cause of Jared Dent's numerous random appendage growths." Sirius let out a bark of laughter.

"Well, what can I say. I think it drastically improved his appearance. Besides, I was getting restless, needed to hex someone. And it is so much more fun to hex perverts than the random Slytherin." This time Shannyn laughed outright. "Glad to see you're back to your usual self, Shann. Life is so much more thrilling when I know you have to power to blast me half way across the room."

"Not quite my usual self." She gently corrected him. "After all, normally I wouldn't be walking hand in hand with the infamous Sirius Black. But what can a girl do. I guess I just realized that some boys are definitely more worthwhile than… others. And normally I would probably hex you if you tried to kiss me," Sirius head whipped around to stare at her in awe, "but today… who knows. I guess we'll just have to see." Sirius stopped walking and planted himself directly in front of her.

"Was that an invitation, Ms. Jones?" He asked, his voice going slightly husky and lower than normal.

"Well," she took a step towards him, cutting the distance between them down to mere inches, "maybe…" She reached up and fingered the chain that he wore around his neck, the chain had the charm of a sickle moon hanging from it. She knew all the Marauders had an identical charm about their necks. She played with the charm for several minutes, looking into Sirius' dark eyes, then she hooked her finger around the chain and drew Sirius down to her level.

Sirius, meanwhile, was slightly shocked. He was used to girls fawning over him, used to them putting the moves on him and flirting with him, but this was different. For one he didn't usually have this reaction to a girl flirting with him. He felt like his stomach had fallen out of his body. For another, this was _Shannyn_. It was Shannyn standing inches away from him. It was Shannyn looking into his eyes. It was Shannyn inviting him to kiss her and bringing him down to do so. And she had put her distinctive flavor in the gesture. She had brought him to her, but she would not kiss him herself, that was his job.

And so Sirius, throwing all confusing thoughts out of his head, closed the remaining inches to kiss the girl. And then he began to have an idea of what James was on to. Sure, he had kissed countless girls before, but there was something different about kissing a girl he actually cared for. There was something different about kissing Shannyn. Like maybe the fact that it was Shannyn.

A/N: I know that some of you may not like the way I brought these two together, but I wanted to bring Sirius' protective nature out so that Shannyn could see that he wasn't just a playboy who cared nothing about the people around him.

Thanks to LilyPotterGirl for pointing out the mistake in this chapter. It has been fixed!


	11. Lying and Waiting

Chapter 11: Lying and Waiting

If the school was shocked that morning several weeks ago when James and Lily had first walked into breakfast hand in hand, it was nothing to the reaction the next day when Sirius Black walked in with Shannyn. Sirius never had displayed such a show of commitment as to actually be seen holding hands with a girl in public. Immediately, shocked girls put their heads together to discuss this new development. A few even shot Shannyn nasty faces and a few well chosen and spiteful words. But Shannyn simply glared back. And when a group of Ravenclaw girls got up and tried to hex her, she didn't even fight back. No, little Miss Jones played dirtier than that. Instead of hexing them back, something she was more than capable of doing, she reached over, grabbed Sirius' head, and pulled him into a passionate kiss. That effectively shut up every girl in the hall. Sirius _never_ kissed in the middle of breakfast, he preferred the semi-privacy of a broom cupboard. But he certainly was kissing Shannyn now. And when he pulled back he let out a bark of laughter.

"Man, Shann. I knew there was a reason I fell for you." He grabbed her hand again to lead her over to where James and Lily were waiting, but stopped after a few feet. "I think there are a couple of girls over there getting a little mad…" he put in hopefully. "Maybe we should shut them up." Shannyn slapped him playfully and then gave him a quick kiss before going down to sit next to Lily, who was looking at her expectantly.

"What?" Shannyn asked after several minutes of pointed stares from her best friend. "I had to shut them up somehow."

"Shannyn, my dear, I never thought I would see the day where you would snog Sirius Black in plain view of every teacher in the school."

"Well, maybe that's because you never thought you'd see the day where Sirius would grow up enough for me to allow him to snog me at all."

"True." Lily nodded knowingly, ignoring Sirius look of shock as she turned back to her breakfast. "So, what did you do to convince him to act like a 12 year old, as opposed to the normal 5 years he so proudly vaunts?"

"Well, Miss Evans, I have my ways… But I don't kiss and tell." Lily laughed.

"Miss Evans," James came in from Lily's other side. "I do believe that you should be taking advice from your friend over there. I definitely think I could use some motivation to grow up over here." He grinned hopefully at her.

Remus, who was sitting across from the two couples, snorted into his cereal. "Man, you two are whipped good. James I expected, but I never thought I'd see the day when Sirius would be whipped. It is just odd, and slightly unnerving."

"Ah, my dear Moony, that is because you have never fallen for a girl like Shannyn here before."

"Well, Padfoot, there would be a very good reason for that…"

"That's a stupid reason, and you know it, Moony." James piped in.

"I don't really think we should be discussing this here." Remus put in with a pointed look at Shannyn. "I think I'll go get my books before class."

"Poor man," Sirius sighed as he left, "he has no idea what he's missing."

"Well, my charming man, why don't you explain it to me, then. Why don't you tell just what daring scheme you have reserved for tonight? It being our first official evening as a couple."

Lily and James looked up quickly. They both knew it was full moon tonight, and they could see Sirius' almost imperceptible glance up to James' face, asking for help. Surprisingly, it was Lily who came to his rescue.

"But Shann, I was going to ask you to spend tonight with me. You know, we haven't had a girls' night in in forever and I really wanted to talk to you about… something. Can't you postpone your date for one night?" Shannyn glanced up at Sirius.

"Babe, go on and have fun with Lils tonight. We'll do something thoroughly enjoyable tomorrow night."

"Well," she responded hesitantly, "if you insist. I really do want to hang out with Lily."

"Oh, I insist." He responded. Then he whispered in her ear, "and by something thoroughly enjoyable I mean that I am going to snog you senseless on the top of the Astronomy Tower." Before getting up from the table with a meaningful look at James and Lily. "Prongsy, could I steal you away for a minute? And the lovely Lily can come, since you seem incapable of detaching yourself from her hand for even five minutes."

"Padfoot!"

"Oh, just come on mate."

Lily and James followed Sirius out into the entrance hall. When the door had shut Lily rounded on him.

"Sirius, I'll cover for you tonight, but you have to tell her soon. Cause I know from personal experience that you not telling your girlfriend would be a _very _bad thing." James was nodding furiously besides her.

"_Very_ bad thing, mate."

"I know," he responded, running his hands through his long hair. "Just, not so soon. I need to talk to Moony first. Just keep her distracted tonight for me, okay Lils?"

"Fine, but I'm gonna use the Room of Requirements. Besides, there is something I wanted to talk to her about anyways…" Lily trailed off, hoping that James had not really registered the last part of her remark. This was futile, as James gave Sirius a quizzical look behind Lily's back. _What was that all about?_ But he seemed to realize that he should ignore it for now.

"Sirius, mate, you know I love you like the brother I never wanted, but, um, don't you need to go see your girlfriend or something?"

"Prongs, you dolt, I just saw her."

"I know, but…" James broke off and glared furiously at him until comprehension slowly dawned on Sirius' face.

"Oh, you want to be alone with Lily. Got it. See you two love birds later."

"Man, I thought he would never leave." James whispered into Lily's hair.

"Why, Mr. Potter, I am appalled. Are you trying to say that you only wanted Sirius to leave so that you could do something inappropriate to me?"

"Why yes, Miss Evans, I am." He placed his hand on the small of her back and pulled her body into him.

"Then why are we still talking?" Lily asked. In response he just pulled her lips up to meet his. But she quickly pulled away. "James, um, this isn't exactly a very private place." They were standing in the middle of the entrance hall, right outside the door to the Great Hall through which the entire school would soon be exiting.

"Right."

He grabbed her hand and practically sprinted with her down the hall until he found a large picture of three monks playing cards. He opened this after pointing out to one of the monks that his hand was terrible, and pulled Lily into the dark corridor hidden behind the picture. She smiled mischievously as he pushed her against the wall, and without waiting for him to kiss her, she grabbed his robes and brought him down to her level.

Needless to say, they were ten minutes late for Transfiguration that day. Though Professor McGonagall pretended not to notice except for the small smile playing across her mouth.

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Lily and Shannyn staid up until 2 talking in the Room of Requirements. They hadn't really talked so much in weeks, and there were very important things to discuss, such as their boyfriends. Both girls were exceptionally giggly.

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Sirius, James and Peter crawled into the common room at 4 in the morning, all sporting minor injuries. They had explored the mountains behind Hogwarts, and they had found a remote cave with an excellent view for which Sirius and James both had excellent plans. When they pulled the cloak off in the middle of their dorm they found Lily waiting quietly on James' bed. She silently handed them all a potion and some bandages.

"You really need to tell Shannyn, Sirius. I can't stand keeping something like this from my best friend."

"We discussed it," he said gruffly. "I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"Good. Because I really need someone to go through this with."

"What are you talking about, Lils?" James asked as he sat down next to her and allowed her to start cleaning up his scratched and bloody arm. "You don't have to go through anything."

"Oh, you mean waiting for my boyfriend to come back and knowing that he is running around as an illegal animagus with a werewolf for company and expecting him to die every month isn't something to go through?"

"Lil, we are all fine. We've been doing this for years. And besides, I thought there was something _important_ you wanted to discuss with Shannyn?" Lily blushed.

"Yes, but I did not know you were doing it then. It makes all the difference in the world." She pointedly ignored his last comment and he decided not to point this out since she did seem genuinely scared and worried.

"Well, flower, I'm touched that you are concerned, but I'm fine, really." She glared at him as he pulled her hair back behind her ear.

"You're fine, huh?" She asked as she lightly ran her hand over the bruise on his side, causing him to wince slightly. He grinned at her sheepishly. "I was worried…" she said in a quiet voice. "What if something had happened to you?"

"Nothing is going to happen to me, I promise. Unless, of course, I don't get any sleep tonight."

He climbed under the covers and turned to see Lily watching him with tears in her eyes. He grabbed her waist and pulled her onto the bed next to him, with his arms wrapped around her. Then, when Sirius looked over and gave a bark of laughter, he directed his want at the curtains around his bed to give them some privacy.

"You'll never lose me, Lils. I'll always be here."

"I know." There were tears falling down her face. "It is just that I got so scared, and I didn't have anyone to talk to about it, and… I love you James Potter, and I can't live without you anymore, and you had better not leave me." She said all of this hurriedly and quietly, as if ashamed to admit how scared she had been.

James just hugged her to him and kissed the back of her neck. "Just stay here tonight, Lils."

"Oh… okay."

And so they fell asleep. James under his covers and Lily lying on top, with his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her protectively. But before he fell asleep James conjured a large and thick blanket over Lily and he buried his head in her hair, relishing in the silky feel and the flowery smell.

A/N: Sorry for the fluff. Spooning is one of the most romantic things I can think of. And before you ask, nothing else happened. James is too much of a gentleman and Lily isn't like that. He just held her to comfort her.

Messyblackhair66: Sorry that you don't like the name. Shannyn is one of my favorite names (I got it from the actress in Knight's Tale) and thus it appears in quite a lot of things that I write. Glad you like the story though!


	12. The good, the bad, and the frightening

Chapter 12: The Good, The Bad, and The Frightening

On an early December morning Hogwarts awoke to a dark and gloomy sky and the news of an attack on a wizarding neighborhood in London. The Death Eaters had ransacked some twenty houses and killed nearly fifty people, including many family members of Hogwarts students. Breakfast was unusually subdued with most people barely even picking at their food.

When the Daily Prophets bearing the news had landed on the Gryffindor table and given the location of the attack Shannyn had ripped apart the paper to find the list of those who had died; her older brother and his wife and son lived in that part of London. When she saw that none of them appeared on the Ministry's list she gave a huge sigh of relief and then broke down crying into the shoulder of a very confused Sirius, who awkwardly patted her on the back while she cried. He leaned over to James.

"But her family is okay. Why's she crying?" he asked quietly so Shannyn wouldn't hear him through her sobs. James looked just as bewildered, but Lily leaned over with a stern look on her face.

"Oh Sirius, she's crying out of relief that they are okay and guilt that she is happy that it was someone else instead of her family and sadness that others had to even get hurt. Oh, and she's worried you are going to dump her for being such a sensitive wreak and because crying makes her eyes all puffy and then she won't look good for you anymore."

"Wow," he whispered back. "I didn't know one person could feel so much all at once." Lily glared at him.

"Why don't you try to comfort her, Sirius. And get her out of here."

"Um, okay. Good idea." He turned and scooped the still crying Shannyn into his arms and carried her out of the hall.

"Has he told her yet?' Lily asked James quietly. "About you guys being…"

"No," he responded sadly. "I've been trying to beat some sense into him about that. But I think Sirius connects telling her his secret with them being in a serious relationship, and that scares him more than he cares to admit. He doesn't like to let people get close to him."

Lily nodded mutely. She had tears glistening in her eyes that she was fighting to keep back. She looked down the table at a little second year girl who was sobbing into her brother's shoulder—their father and little brother had been killed in the attack. Further down sat a fifth year boy who was staring straight ahead of him, lost in thought—his baby sister had been tortured and was now in critical condition in St Mungo's. And throughout the hall there were many others in similar situations. And she could no longer keep the tears back.

James watched as Lily looked around the hall and silent tears fell down her cheeks. He picked up her small and shaking frame and placed her in his lap. Then he engulfed her in a hug, as if he could protect her from the whole world by just holding her. He pulled her long hair back and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"I promise you Lils. As long as I live I will never let anyone hurt you. I will always be there for you."

Lily nodded against his chest and held on to him all the tighter.

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Remus had called an emergency Marauder meeting that night in their dormitory. As he looked around at the grave faces of his three best friends a steely glint came into his eyes.

"We need to do something."

"What can we do?" Peter asked quietly. "We're stuck in school. How can we fight those murdering fools?"

"That's not what I meant." Moony answered quietly. "There will come a time when we can fight. But right now we can help in another way. We can help cheer the school back up." He paused for effect. "Gentlemen, when was the last time we pulled a prank?"

All four boys got a manic grin as they leaned in and immediately began planning.

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Four hours later they were still at it, and Shannyn and Lily had decided to track down their missing boys. With that goal the two girls headed up to the boys' room, but they stopped before entering. Excited voices were coming through the door.

"Great! But how will we stop Mrs. Norris from catching us? We can't all hide under the cloak?" This was from Remus.

"Easy," came Sirius' voice, followed by a loud barking noise.

Shannyn rolled her eyes at Lily, they were planning a prank. Laughing, she pulled the door open before she realized that a frantic Lily was trying to stop her.

"What are you crazy boys planning now?" She was met by three pairs of frantic eyes and one very shocked black dog. "Oh, what an adorable dog?" She ran over and began to pet it. "Where did you guys get it?"

Padfoot, remembering that he was supposed to be a lovable dog, started to play excitedly with her, hoping to distract her from…

"And where's Sirius? I could've sworn I heard him up here."

James shot Padfoot a nod of encouragement, and after a moment's consideration the great black dog threw caution to the wind. He tackled Shannyn to the ground, climbed on top of her, licked her giggling face, then promptly changed back into his usual self and kissed her.

"Well, that's not exactly how I would have told her, Padfoot buddy." James laughed. But he quickly shut up when Lily glared at him and then looked pointedly at the couple still lying on the floor.

Shannyn was staring at Sirius. Then she pushed him roughly off of her.

"How could you? Breaking silly school rules isn't enough for you anymore? Now you have to break the law as well?" And she slapped him, hard, leaving a bright red hand print on his face.

"No, Shann, it's not like that…" Sirius sputtered. "We had to… we did it for…"

"They did it for me, Shann." Remus quietly spoke up. "They did it to help me."

Shannyn turned and glared at Remus.

"They? You mean these two idiots are illegal animagi, too?"

Peter and James nodded sheepishly, and instantly in their places stood a rat and a brilliantly white stag. Shannyn stared at them, and then whipped around to Lily.

"Did you know about this?"

"Um, yeah… That's why I broke up with James last month."

"Oh. Right. Why didn't you tell me?"

"They made me promise. And besides, Sirius was supposed to tell you himself."

"And you're okay with this? With them breaking the law?"

"Well, they did have a good reason…"

"What could possibly be a good reason?"

"I told you they did it for me, Shann." Remus spoke up once more. She turned to look at him expectantly.

"Well?" 

"They did it to help me, so that they can keep me company when I transform."

"When you… what?"

"When I transform." Remus sighed and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "Shann, I'm a werewolf." Shannyn stared at him. "I understand if you don't want to be friends with me anymore, I mean, I wouldn't want to be friends with a monster if I wasn't one myself."

Shannyn rolled her eyes at him, and then pulled him into a tight hug.

"Remus Lupin! How could you even think such a thing?"

"Knew she'd be okay with it!" Sirius said proudly. "That's my girl! Hey! Why is she hugging Remus? Moony, get off of her!"

They all broke out laughing, including Shannyn (once she had let go of Remus, which Sirius was very glad for.)

"Well," she said turning to him. "I guess if you did it for a friend then I can forgive you." Sirius beamed at her. "Though you're a much better kisser as a dog…"

"Hey!"

"Just kidding, dear!" And she leaned up and forcefully kissed a very shocked Sirius.

"That looks like a good idea," James said, pulling a giggling Lily to him.

"Hey guys!" Peter erupted. "Moony and I don't want to see this!"

"Sorry, Wormtail." James said pulling away from Lily. "Guess we'll take this else where. Shall we Padfoot?" The two boys grinned evilly and both leaned down and picked up their girls, then carried them out the door.

"Hey! What about our prank?" 

"Don't worry, Pete." Remus patted him gently on the back. "They'll be back… eventually."

A/N: Hope you like it. Sorry that things have to start getting darker. But such is life. I would still love any ideas about the boys' eminent prank. And generally about anything at all. Encouragement helps me to write faster!


	13. The Marauders Strike Again

Chapter 13: The Marauders Strike Again

The Marauders plans became evident the next morning. They appeared to have bewitched every suit of armor, every painting, and most of the furniture (some of the older desks resisted all of their efforts, they were really quite stubborn) to break out singing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" whenever they saw anyone looking particularly gloomy. They had gigantic jokes written on the walls leading to all the classrooms, and several of the walls had been enchanted to shout the jokes at passing students. And if anyone complained about the 'decorations' there was a gigantic smiley face conjured above them that followed them around all day. And this was not all.

The Marauders took turns following Filch around all day underneath the cloak and spontaneously making him burst out in song and joke as well. And Filch was left with no idea as to how he was being tricked (he had a very good idea as to who was behind it) for he usually relied upon his trusty Mrs. Norris to hunt down the Marauders (she could see through invisibility cloaks, and he was prepared to swear before the Minister of Magic himself that this was how those boys got away with so much, even though he had no real proof), but the cat was currently busy being chased around the castle by an extremely bouncy black dog.

None of the teachers had even attempted to put a stop to the madness; they seemed to realize that the school needed a good laugh. In fact, Remus had even caught Professor Dumbledore correcting one of the suits of armor—it had forgotten the words to the song. When Remus had broken into laughter at this site Dumbledore simply smiled at the boy.

"Excellent day, isn't it Remus? Someone seems to have decided that we needed a little more cheer in our lives. I couldn't agree more!" And he winked at Remus before walking away, happily humming under his breathe.

Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall had been trying desperately to catch the crazy black dog. Finally she gave up and went on a search to find its owner. When she reached the Gryffindor common room and angrily asked who the dog belonged to Shannyn beamed up at her.

"Why, Professor, he's mine! But he was just feeling so depressed today that I couldn't bear to keep him all chained up so I let him run free!"

McGonagall stared at the brunette.

"He is yours, Ms. Jones?"

"Yep!"

"Really? Are you sure he doesn't belong to Mr. Black or Mr. Potter?" 

"Of course, Professor. That big lovable dog is mine through and through. Aren't you Snuffles?" She added as Padfoot came bounding through the portrait hole. "Come on dear. Let's go run around outside!" Padfoot jumped around her in pure excitement, then followed her obediently out of the common room leaving a thoroughly bewildered McGonagall in his wake. Then she turned to Lily, who was sitting with James and Remus on the couch in front of the fire (it currently being Peter's turn to follow Filch around for awhile underneath the cloak.)

"Is that dog really hers, Ms. Evans?"

"Oh yes, Professor!" Lily answered happily.

"Yep," James put in. "She has that dog wrapped around her little finger!"

"Well…" she answered wearily. "If you two are sure… I guess I will go and attempt to calm down some of the more rambunctious suits of armor." And she left with a slightly confused look on her face. But she stopped with one foot out of the portrait hole and turned back to look at the three students sitting innocently on the couch. "But I must say," she added with just a hint of a smile, "you boys sure do know how to cheer us up." And she left as James and Remus looked at her in awe.

"Always knew she had a sense of humor under that hard exterior!" Remus laughed happily.

As soon as Professor McGonagall had exited the portrait hole Lily and James broke into hysterical giggles. (Well, James did and Lily laughed delicately until James began to tickle her furiously.)

"James… stop… can't… breathe…"

"But Evans, I have to punish you." He said sternly. "As Head Boy it is my duty to punish the Head Girl for deliberately misleading a teacher to keep her boyfriend and his friends out of trouble!"

"James! Stop!" She started beating her small fists helplessly on his chest.

"Well," he spoke hesitantly whilst still tickling her furiously. "I suppose that I could be persuaded…" and he stopped tickling her long enough to look at her hopefully. But Lily did not give him what he wanted. Instead, she bolted, giggling, from the room and down the corridor. She did not, however, get very far. James was not the star chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team for nothing.

He caught a giggling Lily and trapped her against the wall, catching both her hands in his own. And all mirth out of his eyes, he looked deeply into her green ones. Lily's breathe caught in her throat as she looked into the large hazel orbs in front of her. There was emotion there, pure unbridled emotion, and it was all for her.

"Lily…" he whispered quietly, gently brushing her hair out of her face, "I love you so much. And I always have and always will." James lowered himself down and met her lips with his own.

There was something different about this kiss. Electricity was running through Lily, and she could almost hear music in her head and see sparks before her eyes. When James pulled slightly away from her she opened her eyes and looked at the man standing in front of her. At that moment she fully realized exactly how much he had changed and she understood that he had changed for her, because he loved her. She looked at him and thought how she never wanted to leave this man, how she wanted him by her side for the rest of her life. But it was far too early for her to tell him this. Instead, she leaned back up to kiss him again, not knowing that she was creating in him the exact sensations she herself felt.

They broke apart only when a frantic Mrs. Norris came running past, chased by an ecstatic Padfoot who was in turn being chased by a laughing Shannyn. Padfoot bumped playfully into James as he ran past and gave a bark that sounded suspiciously like Sirius' laugh, and Shannyn wriggled her eyebrows at Lily suggestively, causing the redhead to blush deeply and hide her head in James' chest.

"My dear, I do believe that is our cue to find a more secluded spot, out of the way of prying dogs who are going to tease me mercilessly later on."

"Oh!" Lily said with a glint in her eyes. "I have an idea. Get your cloak and meet me back here."

"Why, Ms. Evans, what did you have in mind?"

"Well, Mr. Potter. That is for me to know you and you to discover." She smiled seductively up at him, causing him to stumble in his hurry to go get his cloak from Peter. (Peter was slightly upset about having to stop hexing Filch, but James told him that they had been doing so for a good 10 hours already and James needed the cloak to spend some quality time with Lily and just to get over it already. When Peter still persisted in pouting and muttering about being ditched for a girl James casually added that Peter was free to help himself to any of the numerous Honeydukes sweets currently residing in his trunk. This had the desired effect of cheering Peter up, leaving James free to return to Lily.)

Once the cloak was wrapped safely around them (they were not hindered at all by the fact that there were two of them, even though two of the Marauders could no longer fit under the cloak together, for James was perfectly happy to hold Lily a whole lot closer than he would ever consent to hold one of the boys) they snuck up to the Astronomy tower.

"I fancied a night of star gazing," Lily told him once there.

"My lady, I do love the way your mind works." And James conjured a large loveseat and a thick blanket. They curled up together, Lily on James' lap, covered themselves with the cloak, and spent a blissful night simply holding each other and watching the stars.

Towards morning, once Lily had fallen asleep against James' chest, he sat looking at the precious girl he held in his arms, marveling that she truly was his, enthralled by simply watching her sleep. And when a star shot across the sky and disappeared over the lake he silently made a wish in his heart, a wish that never again would he ever be separated from the one that he loved more than life itself.

A/N: Aww, don't we all love a little bit of fluff. I know a lot of you wanted the prank to be pulled on the Slytherins, but the Marauders, despite appearances, are growing up and I'm not sure Lily would have appreciated a prank where students actually got hurt. They simply wanted to cheer everyone up. And we needed the fluff, as sort of an interlude between bad news and worse news. But enough said. Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to tell me what you think!


	14. Meet the Parents

Chapter 14: Meet the Parents

Christmas was approaching fast, and the entire school was decorated and glittering with holiday cheer. And the Marauder's prank seemed to have returned everyone's good cheer. Lily, however, was getting nervous for the holidays. She was taking James home to meet her family. She was sure that her parents would love him, but she was worried about Petunia's reaction. Especially as they would be meeting both Petunia and her fiancé. And then, James was to be her date to Petunia's wedding which was to take place the day before Christmas. And Lily and James would have to act like Muggles, something that Lily wasn't sure James was capable of pulling off.

James, however, was extremely confident in his abilities. Indeed, he was thrilled to be going home with Lily and to experience life as she had grown up. This meant that she was truly allowing him a place in her life, a place he did not plan on giving up by not behaving himself in front of her family. Of course, he had heard her tales of Petunia and her pig fiancé Vernon Dursley, and to that end James planned on keeping his wand hidden up his sleeve the entire time. He was going to protect the girl he loved. She may not want to perform magic in front of her sister, but he would be there to make sure nothing happened to her.

No, James wasn't worried about going home with Lily. James was worried about his Christmas gift for her. He had been working on it for weeks, and he sincerely hoped that she would love it. But he was just a tad nervous. He had never given a girl a Christmas present before—largely because he had never had a girlfriend who he had cared enough about before, or one he thought would be around long enough to make it worth his while. The boys had spent three weeks trying to calm his nerves. They all knew what he had gotten Lily, as he had had to ask their permission to get it… but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

The day that the train was leaving finally arrived, and carried them to Kings' Cross. Peter and Remus left with their parents, and Sirius was dragged over to meet Shannyn's parents before he apparated to the Potters' (there was absolutely no way he was going to his own home, and the Potters' had invited him over for Christmas so he didn't have to spend a lonesome holiday by himself in his flat.) Lily and James were still aboard the train. Lily, slightly nervous, was making sure that James looked like a very presentable Muggle and reminding him once again of all the things he should _not_ do while at her house. Finally, James managed to calm her down, and they exited the train and made their way to where Mr. and Mrs. Evans were waiting (Petunia would not be caught dead waiting for her freak of a sister).

Lily's hand was shaking in James' as she led him to her parents. And James began to get nervous as well as he saw the look that Mr. Evans was giving him. James was quite sure that even though he was a Muggle Lily's father was perfectly capable of killing him if he ever hurt her. But then James looked down at Lily and realized that if he had a daughter like that he would probably do the same thing.

"Um, mommy, daddy, this is my boyfriend, James Potter. James, these are my parents." James grinned and shook hands with Lily's mom.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Evans. I can see where Lily gets her beauty from!"

"A flatterer! I like you already boy, and there is no need for formalities here. Call me Rose."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Then James turned to greet Lily's father. He shook his hand firmly, wanting to convey the fact that he was perfectly capable of protecting Lily.

"Mr. Evans, wonderful to finally meet you, sir." Mr. Evans was looking at him intensely, but James refused to get flustered or back down. Then Rose elbowed him gently in the side.

"Good to meet you, James. And please, call me Harry. Well, folks, shall we head home?" And he led them out of the station, his eyes narrowing as he saw James holding Lily's hand.

When they approached the car to head home James could feel Harry's eyes on him, so he calmly opened the door for Lily and helped her in before getting in himself. But he couldn't resist putting an arm around her once they were inside—something Harry watched from the front seat.

James and Rose kept up the conversation on the way home. Rose was fascinated by the fact that James had grown up in the wizarding world and she was quite curious as to how wizards lived and what differences there were between the two worlds. She was trying to understand the different methods of wizarding transportation as the car pulled up the house.

"Well, Rose," James was patiently explaining, "we have several different methods of transportation. We have brooms for short distances, and Floo powder and portkeys that allow the transportation of under age wizards. But the primary method of transportation is apparition." James continued when Rose looked at him questioningly. "Apparition is the ability to vanish from one spot and appear in another. It is quite difficult to master and so under age wizards are not allowed to attempt it." Rose was still looking confused. So James looked quickly around, made sure that there was no one else on the street, and disapparated with a pop, appearing an instant later on the front door step.

Rose got excitedly out of the car. "I thought you said under age wizards were not allowed to do that, James?"

"They aren't. I turned of age last year, so I am allowed to do magic outside of school."

Harry was watching him carefully. But James was running back to the car to help Lily with her trunk. Rose led them inside.

"Come on, James." Lily said. "You'll be staying in the guest bedroom upstairs." James nodded and followed her, carrying her trunk up the stairs.

"You could have just levitated it, dear."

"Yeah, and had your dad kill me. No thank you, I'd like to stay alive for the rest of my visit here, if you don't mind."

"Oh, he wouldn't have killed you. He's just a little overprotective of his daughters is all."

"Overprotective! He was glaring at me the whole time, Lils!"

"Oh, he'll warm up to you. Just show him that good old Potter charm that I fell in love with." She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss. "Here, let me show you around."

Lily led him down the hall and showed him the guest room, where he would be staying, and pointed to her parents' and Petunia's old room. Then she led him to the door at the end of the hall.

"This is my room. But you've already seen what it looks like, haven't you?" James looked at her questioningly. "When you took me to the Room of Requirements this is what it became for me." James laughed, then carefully placed her trunk at the foot of the bed. Then she led him downstairs to show him the rest of the house. James was fascinated by the TV and stereo in the front room, and wasn't satisfied until Lily had let him turn both on.

"Lily dear!" Rose called from the kitchen, "Dinner will be ready in about an hour, and your aunt and uncle will be here soon. Why don't you show James the garden?"

"Yes, mom!" Lily called back happily, then she dragged James out to the back. The Evans' had a large garden. Lily led James over to a corner where there was a little bench under a large oak tree.

"This is my favorite spot, I like to come here and read, or just think," she turned and grinned at him, "or kiss my boyfriend." She pulled him to her and kissed him, but James stopped her rather quickly. She looked rather hurt.

"Lils, haven't we already discussed that I want to stay alive and your dad is probably watching this from the window?" Lily looked up and sure enough her dad was watching them from the window. "Besides, I have an idea of a much more platonic way to spend half an hour."

"Oh yeah, and what would that be, Mr. Potter."

"This!" he yelled, then he walloped her with a gigantic water balloon.

"James!" She shrieked. "That is not fair! You know I can't conjure balloons, my wand is upstairs."

"Well, then. I'll just have to conjure them for you." And with a flick of his wand a large pile of water balloons sat waiting for them.

They chased each other around for a good twenty minutes, laughing. They were completely unaware that they were being watched.

"Harry, they are simply having some good old fashioned fun. Leave them be." Rose quietly told her husband in the front room.

"I'm just trying to decide if this boy is good enough for my little Lily."

"She seems to be having fun with him, dear. And you saw them kiss. He didn't push her. In fact, it looked like he was the one who pulled away first." Harry just grunted, but he continued to watch them out the window.

"James! Stop! We have to go get ready. I will not have you meet my family when you are soaking wet." James stopped, a balloon in his hand.

"But we were having so much fun," he pouted.

"Yes dear, but I have to go change and dry my hair. I can't just do it with a wave of my wand here."

"Fine, but we need to continue this war at some point."

"Of course, dearest. Now come inside." They walked, laughing, up to the door. But James stopped her before they entered the house.

"We are soaking wet, Lily, and I don't want to ruin your mom's lovely house. Let me dry us off."

"Oh, okay," she answered back as James waved his wand once again, drying them completely. "But no magic when my family is around, they will freak out." And Lily walked into the house to go change for dinner.

James stood on the doorstep, watching her go. For a minute he forgot where he was and simply watched the love of his life walk up the stairs. It wasn't until Harry cleared his throat that James realized with a jolt that he had been starring at Lily for the last couple of minutes.

"James," Harry spoke up, "we need to talk."

"Yes, sir." James answered meekly. Then he walked inside and took a seat opposite from Harry. "Um, sorry about our little water fight, sir."

"No, James. I was watching, and I've never seen Lily have so much fun in her life. It is good for her to open up and enjoy life more. And I saw your consideration for her mother, and the way you look at Lily. I can see how you feel about my daughter."

"I love her." James said quietly.

"I can see that."

"And I will protect her and love her for the rest of my life." Harry looked at James for several long minutes, as if measuring him up. Then, with a great struggle, he finally spoke.

"Yes, James, I believe you will." And for the first time in several hours Harry truly smiled. Then he laughed, and James could hear Lily in his laugh. "Boy, you look shocked. If you had a daughter that looked like Lily you would protect her, too."

"No sir, I would simply beat to a pulp any boy who looked at her. She doesn't realize how beautiful she is." More laughter.

"Well, I guess I can officially resign my post of protector of Lily. You seem to do an excellent job of it on your own."

"Thank you, sir."

"And let's stop this 'sir' nonsense. My name is Harry. And I reckon you want to get changed before dinner."

"Yes, sir… Harry."

"Good. Now get up there and clean yourself up." But as James was leaving the room Harry called him back. "James, there is something you should know about Lily." James looked at him curiously. "She doesn't often let people into her life, and she certainly doesn't do so easily. Ever since Petunia turned on her when Lily found out she was a witch Lily has been overprotective of her heart. Her sister hurt her more than she is able to admit, and ever since she has been distrusting of anyone claiming to love her. Be careful, and make sure you don't push her too hard, before she is ready."

James looked intently into the green eyes of the man standing before him, Lily's eyes. And he began to understand why she had originally pushed him away.

"Go on upstairs, son. We want you looking your best tonight."

James walked obediently up to his room. He didn't know how he had done it, but he had gotten Harry's approval to date Lily. Grinning, he ran up the stairs and changed.

A knock came at Lily's door.

"Yes?"

"Can I come in?" James asked.

"It's open." James walked in, and smiled at the beautiful girl in front of him.

"You look wonderful, Lil." And she did. Her hair was half pulled back, with curls cascading down her back. She had a pale green sundress on.

"You wore that the first day of school."

"How do you know that?"

"Don't you think I would remember that dress? I've never seen you look more beautiful." He stated simply. "But it is missing something." And he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.

"Oh, James! You didn't have to! It's not even Christmas yet."

"This isn't your Christmas present. This is to help you face your family tonight." And he opened the box to reveal a pair of emerald earrings, exactly matching the color of her eyes. She gasped, and threw her arms around his neck.

"Thank you!" But she jumped back at the sight of her dad standing in the door. But he was smiling happily at the pair of them.

"Are you two almost ready? They will be here any minute."

"Yes, Harry. Lily just needs to put her earrings in." Lily looked at him, shocked that the James who had been scared to death of her dad an hour ago was now conversing easily with him. She raised her eyebrows questioningly at him, but he just shrugged and smiled at her. "Come on, beautiful. I'm starving."

"Always!"

A/N: Sorry this has taken so long. I had some difficulty getting it uploaded to the site. Hope you enjoy!


	15. The Horse and the Whale

Chapter 15: The Horse and the Whale

Tonight was the night that Lily had been dreading. Things had gone admirably went James had met her aunt and uncle last night, but tonight he was going to meet Petunia and Vernon. They were going to a restaurant, something which Lily was secretly glad for, as it would at least prevent Petunia from shrieking at her—hopefully. But she was still nervous. Thus the reason that two hours before they were supposed to leave Lily was standing in James' room, fussing over his appearance.

She made him change three times before she agreed to an outfit. Then she made him tuck in his shirt, fix his tie, and shine his shoes. Then she spent a good 15 minutes in a vain attempt to straighten his hair. James put up with this meekly, as he knew how nervous Lily was of his meeting Petunia and Vernon, but when she could not get his hair to lie flat he could see her starting to get hysterical and he took her hand and sat her down on the bed.

"Lils, it's okay. They aren't going to like me no matter how nice my hair is."

"I know. It's just that I wanted everything to be perfect."

"Well dear, nothing is ever going to be perfect if it depends on the ability of my hair to lie flat. I think you're just going to have to accept that." She laughed weakly at him. "Come on, let's give up on me—it was always a hopeless thing anyways—and concentrate on you. When we walk into that restaurant tonight I want everyone starring at you."

Lily pointedly ignored that last comment.

"Alright. Besides, I like your hair messy. It makes it easier to run my hands through."

Lily gave a quick kiss, running her hands through his hair to demonstrate. But he soon pulled her away and led her down the hall to her room. Then he entertained her by going through her closet trying to find something for her to wear. His lack of knowledge of appropriate Muggle attire made this quite interesting. He was quite upset when she refused to wear the first outfit he found. And he couldn't understand why she was laughing at him. But he finally gave in when she told him that no one in their right mind would wear a bikini to a restaurant and once she promised that they could go swimming sometime. (James was adamant about being able to see Lily in the bikini.) Eventually he settled on a white floor length dress with thin gossamer sleeves that reminded James of the medieval portraits in Hogwarts. It had a high empire waist with a red ribbon tied around that matched Lily's hair and the skirt flowed elegantly around her slim form. Lily put her hair up as a mass of curls on her head with a few tendrils hanging down. When she came out to show James he looked at her appraisingly for several minutes.

"Yep, that'll about do it. Mission Everyone-Stare-At-Lily is a go."

"James!" Lily blushed furiously.

"Something's missing, though." He walked over to her and pulled a thin box out of his pocket.

"Oh, James! But you already gave me a gift."

"Well, you needed another one."

James opened the box to reveal a delicate silver chain with a long pendant in the shape of a calalily. A soft "Oh!" escaped from Lily as she ran her fingers gently over the necklace. He looked at her, smiling.

"Do you like it?"

"Do I like it? It's beautiful! Thank you! But how did you just happen to have two boxes with the perfect jewelry ready for me. You didn't know what dresses I was going to be wearing?" He smiled mischievously.

"Well, I just happened to leave myself a lot of options, had several in my pocket and just pulled out the one that seemed appropriate at the time."

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. After several minutes James' mouth moved down from her lips and starting placing little kisses down her long and exposed neck, causing her to sigh contentedly.

"Lily!" Rose called from downstairs. "Are you two ready yet?" Lily pulled away from James.

"Be down in just a second, Mum!" Then she turned to James. "So are you going to put it on me or what?"

He took the delicate necklace out of the box and clasped it around Lily's neck. Then he pulled her to him and whispered into her ear.

"I love you."

"And I you."

Then he offered her his arm and led her downstairs to where Rose and Harry were waiting.

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When they entered the restaurant it was to find Petunia and Vernon already there, waiting for them. Vernon stood up and shook hands with Rose and Harry. Then he turned to Lily and James with a disgusted look on his face.

"Vernon," Rose began, "this is my daughter, Lily."

"Pleased to meet you." He barked out roughly, sounding as though he was anything but.

"It is wonderful to finally meet you." Lily was much more sincere. She shook his large beefy hand briefly. "Petunia, Vernon, this is my boyfriend, James Potter."

James beamed at the pair of them. He shook Vernon's hand and offered his hand to Petunia, but she didn't take it. Instead she turned to her sister with a smirk.

"You couldn't find a boy who actually knew how to uses a comb, could you?" 

"Petunia…" Harry began warningly.

"Sorry, daddy. I'll behave now."

The six ate dinner in a tense near-silence. Then only conversation was between James and Harry with occasional interjections when Vernon was trying to make himself look important. The Evans' had chosen to have this dinner in a public place for a good reason. They wanted to avoid Petunia screaming at Lily and Lily hexing Petunia. But it seemed that instead they had to sit through a tense and awkward dinner.

Only James seemed to be enjoying himself. This was largely because he thoroughly enjoyed discussing magical careers with Harry and watching the look on Petunia's face anytime he said a word that was clearly magical. And Vernon's interjections on his own boring work made James nearly burst out laughing. James was also relishing the fact that Lily was the most beautiful woman in the restaurant. He had not been mistaken when he said that people would stare at her. Lily attempted to ignore this, sitting regally in her chair, but James could see a faint blush on her cheeks. James leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Let them stare. As long as they know you're mine."

She smiled shyly at him and took his hand underneath the table, sending a chill running up his spine. She continued to hold it throughout dinner, giving him an extra squeeze whenever Petunia said anything to her. Lily's hand on his put a rather silly grin on James' face for the rest of the night, but this did not seem to bother him. Lily was beautiful enough for the both of them, he could look rather silly.

Over dessert, however, Rose and Petunia were deeply involved in a discussion about the eminent wedding and Vernon was boring Harry with a long discussion of drill-making, as he worked for a company that made drills. This left Lily and James to amuse themselves.

They were having a quiet discussion about how the Ministry was handling the recent Death Eater raids. The Daily Prophet that morning had reported the arrest of two suspected Death Eaters.

"Do you think they'll be able to hold them?" Lily asked. "I can't imagine Voldemort would allow his Death Eaters to be imprisoned for long."

"That's because you've never seen a dementor." A shiver ran through his hand that still held Lily's.

"That's right," Lily responded. "I forgot dementors guarded the wizard prison Azkaban."

"A dementor?" Petunia asked suddenly. "What a silly name! Why would someone be afraid of something with such a silly name?"

"A dementor is one of the foulest creatures on earth." Lily answered, coldly. "They make you relive the worst moments of your life. They suck all the happiness out of their victims. It is miserable." 

"And you say they guard this prison… Ashabun?"

"Azkaban." James corrected.

"What do you lot need a prison for?" Vernon asked roughly. "Haven't you learned yet that hanging is the only way to deal with criminals?"

"You can't hang a… oh, never mind. You wouldn't understand anyways."

"Well that's true. I'll never understand you freaks."

"Vernon! Please!" Harry had jumped up and placed himself in between the two boys who were standing and glaring at each other. "Sit down, boys. This discussion is getting us nowhere."

"No, father," Petunia stood up, too. "This dinner is getting us nowhere. Come, Vernon, let's go."

They watched as Petunia and Vernon left in a huff, then the four of them resumed their seats.

"Well," Harry began jovially. "Now we can enjoy our dessert!"

"Harry!"

"What? You know it is true just as much as I do. That boy is so dull and Petunia can't form a civilized sentence if Lily is here. We are probably better off without them."

"Harry! She's still our daughter."

"Yes, and I love her. I've just come to the realization that our two daughters can never be together. And since we only get Lily for a short amount of time I'd rather spend the evening with her." 

Rose looked angrily at her husband, but then she seemed to realize that what he said was true and she simply sighed in resignation and went back to her dessert.

James and Lily looked at each other thinking the same thing, _that was weird!_ But they, too, just shrugged and went back to their desserts and a much more animated conversation.

A/N: He he, I enjoyed that. Especially James trying to get Lily to wear a bikini. That bikini might just come back later…

I decided to give you two chapters at once as I had to wait so long to update because of stupid computers. Please be nice and review!


	16. Love and Death

A/N: Be forewarned! A lot of important things happen in this chapter. And it definitely lives up to its title. Don't get too mad at me, the sad had to happened. But I think this will be the last really sad thing for a little while at least. I am going to leave the Voldemort confrontations until after they graduate.

Chapter 16: Love and Death

Petunia's wedding went well. As promised, there was no visible magic, though James couldn't resist slipping a potion into Petunia's drink at the reception. It would make her violently ill all night. But Petunia never connected this with James. James got to dance with Lily, something that thrilled him beyond belief, and he got to glare at all the guys that came and asked Lily for a dance, sending them running in the opposite direction. But, generally speaking, the wedding went well. Petunia looked like a giant cake and she had forced Lily into a dress that had so many pink frills that James had difficulty finding her waist when he was dancing with her. Finally, the happy couple left to a hotel for the night (they were going to come to Christmas morning tomorrow and then leave for their honeymoon the day after Christmas), and James and Lily spent the evening laughing at the prospect of Petunia being ill all night long.

At long last it was Christmas morning. James was up at the crack of dawn and knocking happily on Lily's door.

"Come on, Lily! Wake up! It's Christmas!"

"James! Go back to bed! You sound like Sirius!"

"Well, someone has to, and as he isn't here…"

But eventually Lily did make it out of her room and down the stairs. She found James literally bouncing up and down in his seat waiting for her.

"You silly boy. Are you ever going to grow up?"

"Nope!" He answered happily. "Presents!"

James had insisted that his present to Lily was the last one opened, so after opening the presents from her own family Lily shyly handed James a small box. Inside was an elaborate silver pocket watch.

"Lils, this is wonderful!"

"Oh, but you haven't seen the best part yet." She quietly sat down next to him and took the watch out of his hands. "When you open the front it is a normal watch. But when you open the back…" she had carefully opened the back panel of the watch. Out popped a miniature model of the world. It quickly began to zoom in until it showed a map pointing at the exact location of the Evans' house. "I know how worried you always get, and how you tend to be just a little bit possessive. This way you can always know where I am, you can always be a part of my life. It will always find me by means of this ring." And she held up her delicate hand. There was a small silver ring on her finger, daisies intertwined with lilies.

"Wow, Lily! That is absolutely amazing. Thank you." And he gave her a quick kiss. "But I think it needs a little something." He took her hand and slid the ring of her finger. Then he muttered a complicated spell over it sending Petunia running shrieking from the room. Vernon chased after her and they were not seen for the rest of the morning. James replaced the ring on Lily's finger with a smile.

"Now it is perfect."

"What did you do?"

"I added a little something. If ever you are in need or hurt, my watch will start burning in my pocket. It will lead me straight to you."

"Oh, James! That is so sweet." And Lily engulfed him in a hug.

"Don't thank me yet, flower. I haven't even given you your present." Lily pulled back, nodding, with tears glistening in her eyes.

James quietly reached behind him and brought them back, this time holding the end of a delicate piece of string, which he placed in Lily's hands.

"You'll have to follow it."

Curious, Lily slowly got up and began to follow the string. After a few feet it led her to a chain of Gerber daisies tied together. Each one was a different color. For a minute Lily was curious about this, but it quickly left her mind when she discovered that each daisy had a note attached to it. (James had actually charmed all the daisies to be different colors; they didn't come in quite as many colors as he needed.) Lily opened the first note:

_I love you because you occasionally are good enough to cover for me and get me out of trouble._

Lily laughed, and then reached for the second note, and then the third. Each one held a different reason why James was in love with her. They had started silly enough, but soon tears were running down her cheeks.

_I love you because the sun in your hair can fascinate me for hours._

_I love you because your smile can always cheer me up._

_I love you because everyday I wake up and the first thought on my mind is you._

_I love you because I have never met someone as beautiful in my life. _

_I love you because you have made me into the person that I am._

Lily continued to follow the chain of flowers. They led her through the entire house, and finally out the back door (there must have been over a hundred of them). They led her to her bench in the corner. And sitting on the bench was James with a box in his hands.

"And most importantly, I love you because you are you. And I want you to know how important you are to me." James opened the box and inside was a delicate silver chain with a pendant hanging from it. It was a sickle moon intertwined with a lily.

Shocked, Lily looked up at James. She knew what the Marauders' necklaces meant. She knew that they wore them to symbolize the eternal bond of brotherhood they shared. She knew that they had sworn an oath of friendship and loyalty with those necklaces, and promised that they would do anything for each other, even if it meant death.

"You are the most important thing in my life. And I want you to know that." He knew that she knew what the necklace meant; he didn't have to tell her. Lily stood there, tears streaming down her face, and then she suddenly threw herself into James' arms, nearly knocking him off the bench.

"I love you, James Potter. I love you and I always will. And I, too, promise the Marauders' Promise."

"I guess you liked my present, then." Lily didn't answer him with words. Instead she kissed him with all the intensity of her heart. She didn't care that her parents were watching from the window, she only had enough thought in her mind for one thing—she loved James.

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It was Christmas afternoon and Lily was sitting curled up in a chair in the front room, once more reading the notes James had written her. He had gone home to spend the rest of the day with his family.

Her parents stood watching from the door way.

"She really is in love, isn't she?" Rose quietly asked her husband.

"So it would appear. But I couldn't have chosen a better boy for her to love."

"Did you really like him, Harry?"

"He'll take good care of her. And he adores her. Everything else will come in time."

"They remind me of what it was like to be young and in love." Rose quietly put her arms around her husband. They had changed much since they first fell in love, but she still loved this man. If anything, the years had simply deepened her love for him.

"Let's leave her to it, love. Let's go for a drive."

The two quietly left Lily to her thoughts and went for a drive. They went to the spot where they had first fallen in love, and sat on the swing set where Harry had proposed. Love was not only for the young.

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Hours later Lily was still sitting curled up in the chair, marveling at the love James had for her. It must have taken him days to put this together. And weeks to talk the Marauders into letting him give the necklace to Lily. She would have to remember to thank them when she got back to school.

She was fingering the necklace around her neck when a horrendous crash came from the front of the house. Her head whipped up.

"Mum! Dad!" No response. She ran out the front door.

Two cars sat in front of her house, smoldering. One with Lily's parents in it, the other with a couple of drunk kids who had been out celebrating the holiday. They hadn't seen the Evans' car until it was too late.

As Lily stood frozen in shock both cars erupted in flames.

"NO!"

And hundreds of miles away a pocket watch began to burn in James' pocket.

"Lily!" Instantly, he had the watch out and was screaming at it to go faster, to find Lily. When it finally did he was gone in an instant, his wand gripped tightly in his hand.

When he got to the front of her house he was greeted with a horrific sight. The street was swarming with people, police, and firemen. They were fighting to put out two car fires. With a sick heart James recognized one of the cars. Then he turned to see Petunia screaming at Lily, who was in too much shock to even fight back. By the time James made it to Lily's side Petunia was attempting to strangle her sister.

James' wand was up in an instant, and Petunia was blasted off of her sister. James placed himself in between the two girls and turned, barely containing his anger, to face Petunia.

"You will never again lay a hand on her, do you hear. If you hurt her I will kill you." Then he turned to Lily, who had fallen to the ground. He picked her up carefully, hugging her small frame to him. He quickly walked into the house; once inside he apparated the both of them to his home. He barely even noticed his mother's hysterics in the background; he was too focused on Lily. But he stopped when Sirius came bolting down the stairs, wand in hand, and anger seething through his face.

"What happened? Is she okay? Was it Voldemort? Cause if it was I will personally…"

"Not all evil in the world is Voldemort, Sirius."

James didn't say anything else. He carried her up the stairs, to his room. He placed her on his bed and held her for hours, stroking her head as she cried against him.

A/N: I'm sorry! I know that was sad. But Lily's parents had to die, as they were never around when Harry was with the Durselys. And I don't like the idea of Voldemort killing them. I figured if he had that Petunia would have been constantly blaming Harry and his parents for the death of her parents in the books, but she never even brings it up.

Also, I just realized that you all couldn't see the responses I wrote to others' reviews, so I went back and answered questions that were asked me. From now on I will answer questions at the bottom of my chapters. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to tell me what you think!


	17. Freaks and Muggles

Chapter 17: Freaks and Muggles

James sat for hours, holding a sobbing Lily tightly against him. He could think of nothing to say that wouldn't seem pointless in the face of Lily's stark reality, and so he simply kept his mouth shut. There was little comfort he could give her besides the comfort of simply being there beside her.

"Lils? Have you eaten anything today?" James asked quietly, several hours later.

"No." It was barely even a whisper.

"I'm going to go get you something to eat, okay?" He tried to get up but Lily was holding on to him so tightly that he couldn't even stand. "Lily?"

"Don't!" There was pleading in her voice, something that James had never heard before from her. "Don't you leave me, too! You promised… you promised you would never leave me."

"I'm not going to leave you, babe." He stood up, picking her up with him, "I will always be here for you."

With Lily curled up in his arms, James slowly made his way back down stairs. He walked carefully into the living room to find his parents talking anxiously by the fire. When he met his mother's eyes he could see the concern that was there, and the pride. She was proud of her son and how he had handled the situation.

"Mum, can we get Lily some food?" She nodded curtly, and hurried to the kitchen. Then he gently placed his precious bundle in the large chair by the fire. Lily allowed herself to be placed in the chair, but she kept a death grip on James' hand as he stood beside her, quietly whispering with his father.

"Dad, I don't think I can stand to send her back home…"

"Of course not, son." Mr. Potter spoke instantly, answering the unasked question. "She'll stay here for the remainder of the holidays." James nodded gratefully.

"We'll need to go get some things for her. I don't really think she's up for it."

"Don't worry, I've already sent Sirius." Lily's hand tightened on James'.

"But Petunia… he'll hurt her…" she whispered.

"Nonsense, my dear," Mr. Potter answered kindly, kneeling down in front of her so that he could look into her eyes. "He has specific instructions. He'll be fine."

Lily didn't look convinced.

"Trust Sirius, Lil," James said. "I know him. He'll behave, at least today."

A weak smile flitted briefly across her face, causing James to beam at her. _I made her smile!_

Lily turned to Mr. Potter. She could see James in his father. They could have been brothers if it weren't for the fifty years of age difference in between the two men.

"Thank you, for letting me stay. You have no idea what that means to me."

"Nonsense, child. We've heard so much about you I feel as if I know you already." Lily looked slightly confused.

"James has written you that many owls this term?" Mr. Potter laughed, and in his laugh Lily could hear James.

"James! Write an owl? We haven't had anything besides a short note asking for something in years. No child, James has been talking about his beloved Lily for years."

"Dad!"

"Now, boys," Mrs. Potter exclaimed, coming into the room carrying a tray of hot food. "Stop your arguing. Lily is going to eat and she and I are going to have a nice little talk. Shoo, both of you."

"But Mum!"

"No buts!" She gently took Lily's hand out of James' and pushed both men out of the room, then pulled her own chair up to Lily who sat staring at the food in her lap, touching nothing. "Come dear, you eat some while we get to know each other a little."

Lily looked up at the elderly woman in front of her. She must have been about sixty, but she was still beautiful. She had light red hair that was just beginning to streak with grey. Lily wandered vaguely if all the Potter men fell in love with red heads.

"Thank you, Mrs. Potter, you don't have to be so nice to me."

"Nonsense dear. And stop calling me Mrs. Potter. I may be old, but I'm still Madeline to you. Now while you eat I can tell you all about James growing up and then you can tell me the miracle of how you got him to finally act his age. And then you can tell me the story of how he finally convinced you to give him a try."

And so the two girls, one old and one young, talked together. And after over an hour they were laughing together as they reminisced. When Madeline finally calmed down enough to suggest that maybe it was time that Lily try to get some sleep it was only to open the door and find James and Sirius both sitting on the floor outside the door. Lily laughed at the sight of them, something which caused both boys to jump up happily, then walked over and engulfed Sirius into a bear hug.

"Thank you! I guess you really are a good guy to have a round." He just smiled sheepishly at her.

"Hey! How come he gets a hug!"

"Well, I think that you'd rather I hug him and kiss you. But I can always hug you instead…"

"Not a chance, lady! Come here." He pulled her gently to him and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned up and gave him a gentle—but quick considering his mother was standing right behind her—kiss and then laid her head against his chest.

"Thank you for being there for me today. I'm sorry I ruined your Christmas." He scoffed at her.

"You could never ruin any day for me. I got to see you, didn't I?" She beamed up at him. "Come on, I'm going to tuck you in."

Sirius and Madeline watched them go.

"He really is growing up, isn't he?" She asked.

"Yep, sadly…"

"Sirius!"

"Just kidding, Mrs. P!"

"You know, growing up isn't such a bad thing. Seems you are, too, my boy."

"Shh! Don't let anyone hear you say that!" She simply laughed and followed her son up the stairs. She watched as he gently tucked Lily into bed, and she was waiting for him when he quietly shut the door.

"I'm proud of you, son."

"I didn't do anything special." She just smiled at him knowledgeably.

"But I want to caution you. Girls tend to reach out for affection when they lose someone like this. Be careful that you don't push her."

"Mum!"

"I'm just saying, is all. She needs love right now, not to have someone take advantage of her heart." She looked at him intently.

"I know."

"Good boy. Now, hurry along to bed."

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James woke abruptly. Grabbing his glasses off the bedside table, he groggily took a look at the clock. It was 3 am. Wondering vaguely what had woken him up he lay back down to try and get some sleep. And then he heard a muffled cry. Quietly, James got up and peered through Lily's door. She was curled on her bed, sobbing into her pillow. His mother's words in mind he left the door ajar, but he cast a silencing charm on the door so that they wouldn't wake anyone. Then he went in and sat down next to her.

"Lily?" She raised her head up and looked at him through bleary eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, James! I'm never going to see my parents again! How can I be okay?"

"Of course you'll see them again." Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Do you think the ones we love ever really leave us? You will see them in yourself and your sister. You will see them one day in your children."

"I know… but it's not the same."

"No, it's not." James thought for a few minutes. "You know, Lil, my dad once told me something. He told me that at the Ministry, in the Department of Mysteries, they study death. He told me that a friend of his, an Unspeakable, once said that death is not the end, that one day we may see those we love again, talk to them even."

"Really!" She looked up at him, and he could see the faint beginning of hope deep within her eyes. "So it's not the end?"

"No love. It's never the end. Would your parents want you to ruin your life, lost in memories of them, instead of living?" She shook her head mutely. "You have to live your life so as to make them proud."

She looked at him for several seconds with her big emerald eyes brimming with tears. Then she wiped her eyes resolutely, as if determined to be happy.

"You're right. I can't let this ruin my life. I just have to live for them as well as for me." She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly to her. "When did you get so smart?"

"Well," he responded, holding her even closer, "I have this amazing girlfriend and I guess she must have rubbed off on me." Lily laughed. "I love your laugh. Promise me to never stop laughing, okay?"

"Promise."

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The Evans' funeral was three days after Christmas. Lily hadn't been home since Christmas, or seen her sister. She had spent an enjoyable two days with James and Sirius. The two boys had taken it upon themselves to make sure that Lily was never bored. They had even talked her into letting them teach her how to fly. Lily was terrified at the idea of nothing holding her up but a slim piece of wood. In the end, the only way she got on the broom was to have James seated behind her so that he could take control of the broom if ever she lost it. James was not complaining—he got to spend two hours with his arms wrapped around Lily's waist and his head resting on her shoulder. All in all, Lily had little time left for sadness or tears. But James knew this would all end when he went with her to the funeral.

Accordingly, when Lily woke up that morning it was to find Shannyn sitting on the foot of her bed.

"Shann!" Lily launched herself at her friend. "What are you doing here?"

"James thought you could use a friend today."

"Oh." Lily had momentarily forgotten what day it was.

"And besides," the brunette continued, "someone had to come with you three and make sure Sirius behaves himself."

When James came in an hour later it was to find the two girls helping each other with their hair and laughing hysterically. This thrilled him, until he realized they were laughing at him and Sirius. When Lily looked up and saw her boyfriend pouting in the door she giggled madly.

"Oh! Is poor little Jamesie upset that we are making fun of him?"

"Well clearly I'm not very loved…"

"Does poor little Jamesie need to feel loved?"

"It would be nice…"

Lily's face instantly became serious and she walked over to him seductively.

"Well…"

She smiled up at him and then went up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

"Now that's more like it."

"Come on, you silly lot," Shannyn interrupted them several minutes later. "I know that must be highly enjoyable, but we really should be going soon."

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The four teenagers arrived at the funeral and sat themselves along the back row. Petunia was weeping hysterically at the front and none of them wanted to go near her. Lily and Shannyn were already nervous enough that their boys wouldn't be able to refrain from hexing her without tempting fate by sitting close to her. Indeed, they were both holding tightly to their boyfriends' hands in an attempt to prevent them reaching for their wands.

The service was excruciatingly long. Petunia had planned it and she seemed to think long and painful was the only appropriate type of funeral. At the end, Lily made her way quietly to the front to bid goodbye to her parents. Petunia froze when she saw Lily and her three friends.

"What are _they_ doing here!?!" She was boiling with anger, but she kept her voice to a whisper so as to not attract attention.

"Well, Petunia, they are my friends and wanted to be here for me." Lily answered calmly.

"I don't want any of _your_ kind here! I don't want any _freakiness_." Petunia eyed James, who had his hand in his pocket, firmly clasped around his wand. "I noticed that you could throw me off of Lily with your… _thing_ you have in there, but neither one of you could do anything to save Mum and Dad."

Lily stared at her sister in shock.

"Petunia… how could I have done anything? I wasn't even there when it happened…"

"A lot of good your _freakiness_ is, if it can't even save Mum and Dad."

James walked forward to stand behind Lily, as she looked like she was about to faint. This had gone on quite long enough. But Shannyn spoke up first.

"How dare you! Don't you think Lily would have saved them if she could have? This is not something you can fight against. If it had been a dark wizard or a dementor Lily would have fought them off in a heart beat! This was a car accident! You can't fight a car accident!"

"Shannyn, it's okay," Lily said, placing a calming hand on Shannyn's arm. "Petunia has never understood me, I didn't expect her to do so now. Then she turned to her irate sister. "Goodbye, Petunia." I'll be getting the rest of my things from home today; I don't expect I will be seeing you for awhile." And Lily turned sharply, whipping her long red hair around, and walked quickly out of the room.

A/N: I just wanted to say that although I am not putting a lot of Remus in lately it isn't because I am trying to distance him from the other two. This story is mainly about James and Lily. As such Sirius and Shannyn play a fairly prominent role and I couldn't let them not get together. But Remus won't get a girlfriend in my story, at least I don't think so. As evidenced by his behavior towards Tonks he won't easily allow himself to have feelings for a girl. I really would love to give him a girl, and he certainly deserves one, but it seems pretty clear in HBP that he feels like he can never be with a girl. If anyone has any suggestion on how I can get around this and give Remus a girl, please let me know! And I haven't put in much Peter simply because I have a very hard time writing him. He hasn't turned evil yet, but I still can't stand the nasty little rat.

Emuroo: Petunia was hurting Lily because she believed, as we saw in this chapter, that Lily should have been able to save their parents. Accordingly, she was very angry. She also, though she knew it impossible, still believed at the time that Lily could have somehow fixed it all. After all, that was magic was supposed to do. It took her awhile to accept the reality that magic cannot fix this, and that it wasn't supposed to.


	18. Two Weeks of Bliss and White Weddings

Chapter 18: Two Weeks of Bliss and White Weddings

Lily woke the next morning as the sun streamed in through her window. She lay thinking on her bed for several minutes, thinking of happier times, times with her family, but then she shook herself. She had to stop dwelling on the sad things in life, especially when there were so many good things to enjoy. She jumped out of bed and ran down the hall. Shannyn had spent the night after the funeral and she was going to stay for the day. Lily opened the door without even knocking.

"Shann! Why don't we…" she stopped abruptly when she saw Shannyn and Sirius furiously snogging on Shannyn's bed. Lily blushed deep red. "Um… sorry, I was going to suggest a swim, but you guys are obviously occupied, so I'll just go…" At the word 'swim', Sirius pulled himself off of Shannyn.

"Swim? As in, you girls in swimsuits? I'm in!" Shannyn punched his arm.

"Pervert!"

"Hey, can I help it if the idea of you in a swimsuit thrills me?"

Shannyn rolled her eyes at him, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "why do I even date him?" and turned to Lily.

"I think that sounds marvelous. We can go explore that Muggle swimming pool down the road."

"Great!" Lily responded, beaming. "You two get changed, I'll go find James." She stared to walk out and then stopped. "Where is James?"

"Lazy boy's still sleeping. You'll probably have to wake him up."

"Oh, okay," and she left with a mischievous smile on her face.

She carefully opened James' door and snuck in, careful not to wake him. She smiled at his sleeping form. He was spread out eagle on his bed, his hair bordering on slightly scary. Lily knelt down by the side of the bed and softly kissed him. He smiled in his sleep and murmured her name. She put her hand on his and whispered in his ear.

"James, dear, wake up." He didn't respond, but he grabbed hold of her hand.

"I guess I'll just have to go swimming by myself… in my bikini."

"Bikini!" James shot out of bed and looked around wildly. "Did you say bikini?"

"If you ever get out of bed, that is."

"Oh, I'm up. Definitely up. When are we going swimming?"

"I just have to go get changed."

"Into your bikini?"

"Yes dear, into my bikini. I did promise, after all." She laughed at the look of childish excitement on his face and left him to his happy mutterings so she could go get changed. When she stepped out of her room a few minutes later she had a t-shirt and shorts on. James stopped at the sight of her, a disappointed look on his face. She rolled her eyes at him, hitting him playfully on the arm.

"You dolt! I'm not going to wear only my swimsuit to the pool. Even you have a shirt on!"

"Yeah, but… it's a _bikini_!"

"Bikini! Did someone say bikini?" Sirius came running out into the hall.

"Yes, unfortunately I kind of promised James that I would wear one."

"And Shannyn? Is she in a bikini, too?"

"You two! I don't know what she is wearing. Go ask her yourself." Sirius bounded down the hall and banged on her door.

"Hey, Shann! Will you wear a bikini?" She stuck her head out the door.

"I don't have a bikini," his face fell, "but I suppose I can transfigure my suit into one," the idiotic grin came back. Shannyn disappeared back into her room for several minutes then emerged in a tank top and casual skirt.

The four friends walked a few blocks down to the local Muggle community pool with their thick winter coats wrapped around them to block out the cold. Once inside, after Lily had got the other three to stop starring at the Muggles, they grabbed four lounge chairs and prepared to go swimming. Needless to say, when the girls stepped out of their clothes to reveal the bikinis beneath the two boys lost the ability to speak for several minutes and stood starring dumbly.

"Are you two going to stare at us the whole day, or are we actually going to go swimming?" Lily asked after several minutes. "You two act as if you've never seen a girl in a swimsuit before."

"Correction," James responded. "I've never seen _you_ in a swimsuit before. Big difference."

"Oh." She blushed a deep shade of red that clashed spectacularly with her hair.

"But swimming sounds good!" And he grabbed a protesting Lily around the waist and threw her into the pool, then jumped in after her.

After several hours of playing around in the pool the two girls decided they needed to relax and they dragged their boys over to the hot tub. Then the four friends spent an enjoyable hour discussing school and the various happenings of the Wizarding world. James didn't participate much in the conversation. He was a bit distracted by the fact that Lily was sitting next to him. He had one arm draped around her shoulders and the other clasped tightly in one of hers; her other hand was resting lightly on his knee. James was glad that Sirius, too, seemed to be distracted by his girlfriend, as he was fairly sure that if this weren't the case then Sirius would be teasing him mercilessly right now.

As the afternoon started to fade into evening they went and sat on their chairs to dry out. Originally Lily was in her own chair, but she soon got cold and ended up sitting with James on his.

"You're beautiful, you know."

"James, stop! You're making me blush!"

"I'm just telling the truth."

"Nonsense."

"All I can say is it's a very good thing that you don't wear that everyday. 'Cause if you did I don't think I would ever get any work done." He took her face in his hands and turned it so he could look into her eyes. "Not to mention the fact that I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you."

She looked down shyly, unable to meet his intense gaze. James captured her lips with his own, kissing her passionately. He gently ran his tongue along her lips, asking for entry. When she granted it to him he snaked his arms around her back and pulled her into him. Lily was slightly startled by his intensity, but she answered back in kind, almost welcoming him, and for several minutes they were lost in each other. She seemed to be more daring that she usually was, as if she has lost some sense of inhibition that had typically prevented her from allowing too much intensity. Soon his hands had begun to roam into unfamiliar territory, and her arms were around his neck, closely holding him in so that he wouldn't escape. Then he stopped abruptly and pushed himself away from her. She looked at him disappointedly, almost hungrily.

"I… um… I promised my mum I wouldn't… I need to go…" was all she could make out among his stuttering and mumbling. He stood up, took a running leap, and jumped into the cold pool. After a few minutes of swimming he pulled himself out, made a great show of towel drying himself, then muttered a drying spell with his hidden wand. Not that he needed to hide it. The four friends were the only ones left in the pool area, but there was always the chance that someone could come wandering in and they might find a boy waving a wooden wand slightly out of the ordinary.

The four teenagers began to get dressed again, Lily blushing furiously the whole time, and avoiding looking at the others. She hadn't intended to let things get that far, and she was slightly scared by the fact that she didn't know if she would have been able to stop herself. But it felt so good to simply be loved that much. Her whole being seemed to be craving the attention and the affection.

Sirius went over to James. He had not witnessed the scene between James and Lily as he had been teasing Shannyn at the time, but he had seen the hastily concealed spell cast by his best friend and it startled him. He was not used to being the one to have to remind his friend to not use magic in front of Muggles. Typically it was the other way around.

"Prongs, mate. You know not to do magic here." He was talking quietly so that no one could overhear him. "Why did you have to bloody jump in the pool after you were already dry?"

"Needed the cold, mate."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest, then he got a knowing look on his face. He nodded in the direction of the two girls.

"I feel for you, mate."

"Mum made me promise that I wouldn't use her grief for my own… er, advantage." Sirius nodded knowingly.

"Girls do tend to get a little physical when they are grieving. That's how Shann and I got together, after all."

"Bloody impossible to keep my hands off of her. 'Specially when she's dressed like that."

"One day, mate. One day." Sirius said, patting James' back affectionately.

"Not with Lily, Padfoot. She told me she wants a white wedding. A _real_ white wedding." Sirius stared at him confused for several seconds, then comprehension dawned on his face.

"She actually told you that?"

"Yep. That night she spent with Shann covering up for you she spent all night trying to figure out how to tell me. She was all nervous I would dump her. Told her I wasn't like that." Sirius had a horrified expression on his face.

"Does Shann want a… you know?"

"Not sure. I don't think she's as adamant about it as Lily is, though."

"She bloody well better not be!"

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Shannyn went home that evening, as her parents insisted that they needed to spend some time with her before she returned to school. So the three friends were left to their own devices. It took two days to cheer Sirius up, as he moped about the house after his girlfriend left, but he soon was back in his perpetual good mood and they spent an enjoyable few weeks running around the countryside. They played many a prank on the unsuspecting inhabitants of the town that James lived near, not to mention several on each other, and Lily spent many enjoyable hours riding on the back of a mysterious white stag, exploring the countryside. This confused Mr. and Mrs. Potter, but they figured James must have conjured it for her and didn't ask any questions. But all too soon it was time to return to Hogwarts for the last time.

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When Lily, James and Sirius apparated to Platform 9 ¾ to catch the train back to school, the happy mood that had surrounded them for the past two weeks quickly evaporated. This was the first time Lily was taking the train without her parents to wave goodbye, and she was acutely aware of the fact. She had a tight hold of James' hand and Sirius had his arm casually draped around her shoulders. She was grateful for their support but she was slightly worried about returning to the busy world of Hogwarts. They would not constantly be there to protect her and cheer her up. She would have to make it on her own here. But she pushed these worries to the back of her mind.

The three friends went and commandeered the Heads' Compartment, and eagerly waited the arrival of Shannyn, Remus and Peter. Then they spent the train ride in enjoyable companionship.

A/N: We all needed a little fluff after the bad things in the last few chapters. I just couldn't resist the boys reactions to the girls in swimsuits. He He! Anyways, it also allowed me to introduce that little discussion at the end. Lily grew up with the idea that she was going to wait until marriage and she is serious about it. And James respects her enough to be okay with that and to understand. That doesn't mean he won't get a little carried away sometimes, but he knows when to stop himself. Enjoy!

Also, I think I may have found a solution to the whole girlfriend for Remus thing. But it is going to take awhile to get there. I don't think I'll give him a real girlfriend until after

they graduate, but bear with me.


	19. The Mind of a Werewolf

Chapter 19: The Mind of a Werewolf

Remus Lupin was a werewolf, and this had defined much of his life for the 12 years since he had received his bite. He had no friends as a child as his parents were concerned to expose him to others and he was worried about the inevitable questions they would ask. He didn't even think that he would be able to attend Hogwarts or learn magic. He knew that he was shunned by the Wizarding and Muggle worlds alike, that he would never have a proper job, and never be able to have a family or friends. Because of this he had early on developed a love of reading. In books he could escape the world that branded him as a monster. In books he could pretend that he was normal.

When Remus was 11, however, his life changed forever. One day in mid July his family was visited by Albus Dumbledore, the newly appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts. He felt that there was no reason why Remus could not attend school, as long as certain precautionary measures were laid down. He explained how he had had a house built with a tunnel which was protected by a Whomping Willow; the house was for Remus to use to transform once a month. Remus was ecstatic; he had a chance to live a semi-normal life for the first time. But this did not stop him from believing that he would have no friends at Hogwarts. He fully expected to spend all his time reading in the Library, but he was used to this. He would push everyone away before he could hurt him, or before they could reject him because of what he was.

Then, on the Hogwarts Express, he was accosted by two psychotic black-haired boys—James Potter and Sirius Black. And the two simply refused to allow him to read in peace. The three of them were sorted into Gryffindor, and they shared a dorm together with a small boy named Peter Pettigrew. Remus tried to avoid them, tried to get them to leave him alone, he really did, but they would have none of it. Soon the four boys were fast friends.

It only took them a year to figure out his secret, no matter how many lies he told them about visiting a sick relative.

On the Express on the way to second year James and Sirius barricaded the four of them into a compartment, cast a silencing spell on the door, and then turned and begin questioning Remus. When they admitted that they knew he was a werewolf he expected that he would never hear from them. He had even skipped the feast so that they wouldn't have to talk to him. He had then sadly gone to Professor Dumbledore's office. He was going to ask the Headmaster if he could be relocated to a different house, he was sure the three boys would not want him sleeping in their dorm anymore. He was sitting sadly in the Headmaster's office, explaining this, when all three boys burst in. They were all protesting that it was bollocks and that they didn't mind and were still his friends.

Remus didn't believe them.

It was Peter who finally convinced him that they were telling the truth. Peter was usually quite, and rarely spoke up. But occasionally he said something truly remarkable.

"Remus, who cares if you are a werewolf. You are still you. I think it's bloody cool that you turn into a wolf once a month! You are able to transform! And besides, what difference does it make?"

The Headmaster had not said anything. He sat watching the four boys with a twinkle in his eye. He was glad that Remus had been placed into Gryffindor with these three boys. He had indeed had a little to do with that. Before the Sorting he had had a little discussion with the Sorting Hat. He explained Remus' situation to the hat and then asked for a favor. He did not want the boy in Slytherin; he would never have been treated fairly. Instead Dumbledore made the suggestion that he be placed into Gryffindor. If any students could accept Remus it would be those brave enough to face anything. And he had not been wrong.

Once the three boys had assured Remus that they were still his friends they spent the next few months trying to figure out how to help their friend. It was James who found the answer (transfiguration was his best subject, after all). He knew that if the three boys could become animagi then they could keep Remus company, for they would not be in danger as animals. Thus the four friends began working on the difficult task of learning how to become animagi. It had taken them nearly three years to figure it out. It wasn't until the first full moon of fifth year that Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs had their first eventful romp in the moonlight.

Remus had not been the same since. He was no longer shy and quite around other people. He could laugh and joke, he would comment in class, and he had no difficulty in fulfilling his prefect duties (except for where it came to taking points from his friends—they had done so much for him he could never bring himself to take points from them or give them detentions). In only one area was Remus unable to overcome his fears.

Remus Lupin would not allow himself to fall in love.

He knew that he could never ask a girl to be with him and live with all of his baggage. He could never ask a girl to be with a werewolf; it wouldn't be fair to her. No matter how many times James and Sirius sat him down and tried to talk some sense into him, he would never change his mind. He became a ravaging monster once a month, and no girl should have to date a monster. James, in particular, thought this was ludicrous. Remus was the only Marauder who truly understood girls. He was the one whose advice it was that finally enabled James to get Lily to fall for him. It was his lectures on how to treat a girl that had allowed Sirius to become a gentleman enough to even have a chance of dating Shannyn. It was Remus who coached Peter through the seeming impossible task of asking a girl to Hogsmeade. And still, Remus Lupin had yet to go on a date.

There had been many girls that he had fancied at one point in time, but Remus would not allow himself to even talk to any girl he liked, in case she started to like him, too. Every time a girl got up the nerve to ask him on a date (which happened quite frequently, he was a Marauder after all) he politely but immediately refused. No one quite understood why Remus had never so much as held a girl's hand. But then no one knew that he was a werewolf. To him it was the only thing that could be done. He would never ask a girl he liked for a date, because he told himself that there were so many better boys, boys who wouldn't run the risk of eating her once a month, that she could be spending her time with. Remus wouldn't even dance with a girl. The few times that they had had balls at school the only girls he would dance with were friends like Lily and Shannyn. Incidentally, he only agreed to dance with them because he knew them and he knew they were off limits—Marauders never touched another Marauder's girl, and Remus knew long before the two girls that James and Sirius would eventually end up dating Lily and Shannyn. He just knew things like that.

He did occasionally get lonely, but he had long ago made up his mind that love was just something he was going to have to live without. He was lucky that he had found three friends who were willing to break the law and risk their lives to help him. That was as much as he could expect out of life.

But when James and Sirius both got steady girlfriends this year, things became harder for Remus. He had fully convinced himself that he would never have a girlfriend, but it was still hard watching his two best mates be in a relationship. He had a great deal of difficulty controlling his jealousy that they were so happy and in love. (Sirius would protest loudly at this statement, but Remus knew it was true nonetheless, his two friends had fallen head over heels in love.) Peter was great, and he was always there to hang around with, but he could never replace James and Sirius.

It was James who first noticed that something was troubling his werewolf friend. A few weeks before going home for Christmas he brought the subject up with Lily—after all, he had never been good with the sentimental stuff. Lily then began to closely observe her friend. She soon picked up on the longing looks he would throw at the two happy couples, and his hesitancy to even speak with a girl. She remembered back to how Remus had reacted when she had found out about his 'furry little problem', and she thought she knew what was wrong.

The six Gryffindors were sitting lazily around the fire in the common room that evening, sharing stories about their holidays and consuming an unheard of amount of sweets. But Lily noticed that she wasn't the only one who was slightly reticent to join in the conversation. Remus was sitting slightly outside of the circle, as if reluctant to join in the fun. With a sigh of sadness she gave James a quick kiss and unfolded herself from his arms. She walked quietly over to sit next to Remus. For several minutes she didn't say anything, then she carefully nudged him.

"Want to join me for a walk? I've had enough of Sirius and James for the last few weeks, could use a little sanity." She said this playfully, but Remus' shrewd eyes saw that this was not the real reason that she wished to walk with him. Nevertheless, he shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

"Sure."

He got up and followed her out of the common room, after a quick look of understanding between Lily and James. She quietly took Remus' arm and led him along the hallways in silence. But Remus recognized where they were going—he was the brains behind the Marauder's Map after all. Yet he did not protest and Lily gently led him to the Room of Requirements.

The room was simple. A fireplace and two comfortable armchairs facing each other, in which the two friends sat down. After several minutes of silence Lily finally spoke up.

"Remus, why do you think less of yourself?" His head shot up, he hadn't been expecting _that_.

"I don't think…"

"Don't try to lie to me, Remus. You have convinced yourself that because you are a werewolf, because of something you cannot control, that you do not deserve the same things in life that everyone else does. I've seen it. It took the boys years to get you to truly trust that they would truly be your friend. You expected both Shannyn and I to reject you for what you are. You seem to think it a given that no one can look past your problem to see the person that you are."

"Lily, that is just the way things are. I am lucky to have found the guys. Not many people would accept me like they have, or do what they have done for me. And you are truly remarkable for you ability to accept me for who I am, despite my… problem. This is just the way things are in our world. People will always fear me, they will never trust me, and I will forever be labeled as a werewolf instead of who I really am."

"I can't deny that there won't be people who can't accept you, that people won't fear you. But it is the same thing as blood prejudice—pointless and without factual foundation." Remus smiled wryly.

"Except for the small fact that a Muggleborn isn't likely to kill their best friend once a month without a second thought."

"You would never do that Remus, you will always find a way to protect those you love." He simply shrugged. "But your friends are not who I am talking about. Remus, why have you never had a girlfriend?"

She could see his hands tighten on the sides of his chair. He looked at the floor for several minutes.

"That would be a lovely topic of conversation on a date. Honey, you look marvelous tonight, let's eat dinner, oh, and by the way, once a month I become a full-blown raging monster." He chuckled, but it was not a laugh of mirth but one of mockery and self-hate. "How could you expect me to expect someone that I care for, someone that I love, to have to carry that burden?"

"Don't you think they would willingly accept it if they truly loved you?"

"You're one to talk, you dumped James simply because he was an animagus. At least he didn't try to kill you."

"No Remus, I dumped James because he lied to me. I do not, and I never will have a problem with the fact that he can morph into a stag at command. I accept him for who he is, and that has made our relationship stronger. I never thought I would willingly date a notorious prankster, and yet I not only date him, I helped him plan numerous pranks over the holidays—mainly on Sirius, but he deserved it." She stopped and gently tilted his head up so that he was looking her in the eyes. "I went through hell these last few weeks and I would not have made it out alive if it weren't for James, if it weren't for the love he has for me. I do not want you to go through life without having that too."

"I can't, Lily. Please understand…"

"I will not understand. I think it is ridiculous. All this is is an excuse. You can find love just like I have. It may be a little more difficult because of your… problem, but it is not impossible. You just have to make sure that you choose to bestow your love on someone worthy of it."

"How can I ask someone to date a werewolf?"

"Remus, I would date a werewolf," she smiled, "that is if I weren't already head over heels in love with one of your best mates. I would have considered myself lucky to date you last year, you are ever girl's dream boyfriend. I have never met someone so caring, someone so perceptive and understanding, someone so selfless and willing to give of themselves. I refuse to accept that you are meant to go through life alone and sad."

Remus looked into her eyes, desperately trying to decide if she was telling the truth. He had wanted to believe what she said for so many years, but he had never allowed himself the hope that he could find love. But as he looked into her eyes he saw the truth. She would not judge him for what he was. And slowly, Remus began to think that maybe there was a girl out there like Lily, a girl who would be willing to overlook the one thing in his life that he could not control, a girl who would willingly fall in love with Remus Lupin, werewolf and all.

Silently, and almost imperceptibly, he nodded his head. And a small look of triumph flitted across Lily's face.

"Now, I am not expecting you to run out tomorrow and find yourself a girlfriend, it will take time for you to get comfortable with this idea. But I do expect you to find a date for the next Hogsmeade trip. You don't have to go along. James, Sirius, Shannyn and I will go with you and we can all have lunch in the Three Broomsticks. And you will have fun, Remus Lupin." There was a steely glint in her eyes and Remus faintly wondered how much James was rubbing off on her. But this thought was quickly driven from his mind at the horror of having to ask for a date.

"But that would mean I'd have to ask someone… a girl… for a date?" He looked simply horrified at the thought.

"Or you could just say yes to one of the ten girls who are bound to ask you. Don't think I haven't noticed how many dates you turn down every Hogsmeade trip."

"Or I could just wait until the next trip…"

"Don't even think about it!"

He smiled wryly. He didn't think that would work. After all, a girl who could put up with James Potter was not likely to back down with his feeble arguments, but he had to try.

A/N: I hope you like this! Sorry it has been awhile, but I had finals to deal with. Remus still isn't going to get a girlfriend for awhile, but at least he is making progress. Let me know what you think!


	20. An Eventful Date

Chapter 20: An Eventful Date

To say that Remus was scared by the prospect of asking a girl, an actual girl, on a date to the next Hogsmeade weekend was a bit of an understatement. In truth, the idea terrified him. As the time drew near for him to find a date to Hogsmeade he spent an increasing amount of time trying to talk Lily out of requiring him to do this. But Lily was adamant. She knew that Remus needed this, and she wasn't going to back down. Remus had even gotten so desperate as to attempt to enlist James' help in his cause, but James had received specific instructions not to listen to Remus.

"Moony, I'm not going to help you. Lily's right, you need to do this."

"But Prongs! I can't do this! Only someone like Lily and Shann would accept me for who I am, and I'm never going to find another girl like those two. You don't know how lucky you have it."

A crazy glint appeared in James' eye, the infamous Marauder look.

"Moony, my friend, I have an idea." He paused at the look of gratitude on Remus' face. "But you aren't going to get out of your date." Remus' face fell. "You're going to go with Lily."

"Lily! But… I can't… she's your girl…"

"Stop sputtering you great fool. I'll get her to put a glamour charm on so that she doesn't look like herself, no one will recognize her."

Remus looked at him with an incredulous look on his face.

"You're going to let me go on a date with your girlfriend?"

"Sure, I trust you. I know you aren't going to try anything with her. This way you aren't worried about trying to impress a girl, you can just get over this stupid fear of yours and let others see you on a date. It'll just boost your confidence a little, buddy."

Remus didn't look convinced.

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The morning of the Hogsmeade trip arrived with a clear blue sky and crisp winter wind. James made a great show of sitting down by the common room fire to a mountain of homework. Shannyn and Sirius were sitting in a chair next to him, hands entwined as they waited for Remus. Peter was sitting next to James, working on an essay for Herbology. After several anxious minutes of waiting, James and Sirius finally sent Peter up to fetch their friend. Remus walked slowly down the stairs, his face a lovely shade of white. He went and quietly sat down by his friends; though Remus wished to disown Sirius for the snickers he was doing a poor job of hiding behind his hands. Remus shot a glare at him.

They had waited until the other older students had already gone down to the village so that no one would question Lily's new look. When the last straggling sixth year had made his way out of the portrait hole, Shannyn got up from her seat in Sirius' lap and blithely ran up the stairs to fetch Lily. She returned with a beautiful girl that looked nothing like the red-headed Head Girl. Lily had charmed her hair to be shoulder length and blonde, and it curled gently around her face. She had deep brown eyes looking out from thick lashes. She had darkened her skin to a lovely tan and she was wearing an outfit that the more modest Head Girl would never have been seen in: a short brown skirt that flared around her mid-thighs and tight brown boots that hugged her slim calves together with a form-fitting sweater in vibrant red (Lily never did get to wear red) that showed off her brilliant figure. At her entrance all three boys' jaws dropped. Lily laughed, but it wasn't her laugh. She had even found a charm to change her voice. She took a quick glance around to make sure no one was in the common room and walked up to James. She gently lifted a finger and shut his mouth.

"Lils, you look amazing." His eyes ran appreciatively up her slim form. "But I like you better as you."

"You better, or you might just find that I enjoy Remus' company more than yours."

James sputtered at her, his head frantically shaking until she caught it in between her two hands and gave him a quick kiss before turning to Remus.

"Lily, you look wonderful."

"Well thank you, Remus. But you better not call me Lily. My name is Madison, Madison Jones, and I go to Beauxbatons Academy in France, but I am visiting my cousin Shannyn for the weekend."

"Lovely to meet you, Madison. Shall we?" He offered her his arm. With a wink at James he escorted her out of the portrait hole, followed by a giggling Shannyn and Sirius. Right before the portrait closed James cried out,

"You keep you hands off of her Remus!"

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When Remus and Lily walked into the Three Broomsticks several heads turned to stare at them. The boys threw glares at Remus and hurriedly asked if anyone knew who the gorgeous girl was, and the girls were looking at Lily with envy: many of them had been turned down by Remus in the past several years and they were wondering how this girl had gotten a date with the shy but handsome Marauder. So engrossed were they in wondering who Lily was no one noticed the conspicuous absence of Lily and James. Only one young man looked at them with anything but surprise and admiration on his face. Severus had been hoping to taunt Lily herself, but he supposed her best friend would have to do, as she appeared to have stayed in the castle.

"He Shannyn, where's the Mudblood? Still crying over the loss of her Muggle parents?"

"Well, Snape, you obviously wouldn't know what it is like to lose someone who loves you and you love, for you have never been loved in your whole life, and you probably never will be—for good reason." Shannyn had stepped in front of Lily hoping to stop her from saying something that would blow her cover, but there was no need. Slowly sidestepping in front of her friend Lily quietly walked towards the troubled young man before her, a puzzled expression mingled with disgust on her face.

"What kind of cruel and sad person would take pleasure in someone else's pain?"

Snape gave an appreciative look at Lily's short skirt, then allowed his eyes to trail up her body to her face. Lily shivered involuntarily—she felt like he had touched her, and let's just say it wasn't a very pleasant sensation.

"Oh, beautiful, I was just teasing. Why don't you ditch that pathetic date of yours and join me instead?"

Lily slapped him across the face, leaving an angry red hand print on his cheek. Snape leapt at her with a snarl, his wand already out, but Remus stepped deftly in front of her.

"Leave my date alone," he whispered in a deadly quiet voice.

"Why, Lupin? What are you going to do? Bite me?"

Remus growled deep in his throat, anger bubbling into his face. Behind him Shannyn had her hands on Sirius' shoulders, holding him back. This was Remus' fight and he needed to do it on his own.

"Snape, you had better get out of my face before I change my mind about hexing you. And don't forget, I'm not the best at Defense for nothing."

Fear flitted into Snape's eyes, then he turned contemptuously and exited the pub.

"Serves him right, the filth." Sirius growled from behind Remus. "Shouldn't say things about our Lily when she's not here to defend herself."

Lily smiled gratefully at Sirius then turned to Remus. She put her hand on his arm and looked up at him flirtatiously.

"Thanks for standing up for me, Remus. I'll have to make it up to you later." She winked at him and walked to their table, leaving Remus starring after her until he seemed to force himself to move.

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By the end of the day, Lily was smiling proudly at Remus. His confidence had returned throughout the day, and the shy Remus of that morning was replaced by the usual confident and funny Marauder. He may not have been ready for a real relationship, but he was gaining faith in his ability to deal with girls.

He walked Lily up to the Gryffindor tower where she bid him goodbye, and gave her a quick kiss on the check. Then Lily snuck down the hall. She knew that James was waiting for her in the Room of Requirements.

When she opened the door she gasped. A small candle lit table was sitting in the moonlight and soft music was playing. Suddenly a hand shot out and dragged her into the room and quickly shut the door. Then Lily found herself in a kiss that took her breath away. When James finally pulled away from her he buried his face in her neck and whispered into her ear.

"Are you going to get rid of that bloody blonde hair? Because I refuse to date a blonde." She reached for her wand but James stopped her hand. "But I wouldn't mind if you kept the outfit." She laughed and waved her wand and she was herself again, but she kept the outfit except for making the sweater a beautiful cream. James smiled and pulled her back in for another kiss.

"Aren't we going to have dinner?"

"Later."

He reached down and deftly picked her up into his arms and carried her over to the armchair in front of the fire. He sat down with her on his lap.

"I missed my little red-head today." He ran his hands through her long hair. "Plus, playing with your hair helps stop me from touching those beautiful long legs of yours."

Lily threw her head back and laughed her beautiful laugh.

"I never said you couldn't touch me James. I just said you had to be able to stop yourself." His large hazel eyes looked up into her shining emeralds.

"Well," he replied as his hand slowly moved up to rest just beneath the bottom of her skirt. "A guy takes what he can get."

He leaned down and captured her lips with his own, kissing her long and slowly. He gently nipped at her bottom lip, allowing his tongue to slide into her mouth. Lily shivered with pleasure. Ever since that day at the pool James had been containing himself—he hadn't tried that move in weeks. Lily, afraid that he might let go, wrapped one hand around his neck and gently but firmly pulled him in closer to her. Her other hand, which had been entwined in his, she slowly brought up to run lovingly over the muscles in his arm. When James finally pulled back gently, panting, he started into her deep eyes with so much love that Lily grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for more. Then her hands slyly found their way under the edge of his shirt and she traced lightly over the soft planes of his back. James groaned happily, and the hand that wasn't resting firmly on her leg slowly snaked around to the small of her back and gently brushed her soft skin under her sweater, but neither hand moved any further up.

Dinner, however, sat forgotten on the table.

A/N: Hope you liked it. Let me know what you think, and I'll try and update soon!


	21. Games and Questions of Import

Chapter 21: Games and Questions of Import

It is amazing how quickly time can pass when one is living in a castle. With the NEWTS drawing ever closer, the close-knit group of Gryffindor seventh years had little time for anything besides homework and revising. And James was around even less since Ludo Bagman, the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, insisted on practice five nights a week. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup for the last six years, and the team had no desire to ruin their winning streak. Because of this, James and Lily had very little time to themselves. When James would get in from practice he was so exhausted that all he had the energy to do was pull a book to him and read for an hour or two and then trudge off to bed.

The Quidditch final was scheduled for the day after NEWTS finished. James considered this cruel and unusual punishment, for when everyone else finished NEWTS they got to relax and enjoy themselves while he had the looming match to worry about. Though it might be a good thing, he decided as he walked out onto the field. If he got knocked out during the game it wouldn't affect his studying time.

He decided later that maybe he shouldn't have thought that, maybe he jinxed the team.

They were playing against Slytherin, and when the two teams lined up to face each other before play the Slytherin Captain, a big lump of a boy named Bletchley, called over to him,

"Hey Potter! How's the Mudblood girlfriend doing? Still crying over the loss of her filthy Muggle parents?"

Livid, James dove for his wand, but before he even pulled it up Bletchley's laughter was silenced by a well-placed silencing charm having been directed his way from the Gryffindor stands. James looked up and saw Lily slowly lowering her wand, her face set in a determined look. He smiled up at her, then turned to the boy in front of him.

"You should learn to keep your fat mouth shut, Bletchley. And twenty points from Slytherin for insulting the Head Girl and using offensive language."

Play began and things began nicely. Gryffindor immediately pulled ahead with three back-to-back goals. The three chasers were flying in perfect cooperation with James as lead scorer. In retrospect James decided he should have realized that there was a curious lack of beater interference.

The Slytherin beaters, instead of attacking the chasers, were both zooming straight towards the Gryffindor seeker. And they both sent Bludgers at her from five feet away. James watched in horror as she fell to the ground, completely out. She didn't wake up for a week.

With the Gryffindor seeker out, things began looking desperate. Bagman took immediate revenge and knocked out one of the Slytherin beaters, so that the Gryffindors had almost undisputed control of the Bludgers, but the whole team was thinking the same thing: how could they win without a seeker?

After an hour of heated play, Gryffindor was leading by seventy points, but it wasn't enough and they were beginning to get desperate. Bagman called a time-out, and James, instead of joining his team on the ground, shot off towards the stands. He stopped a foot away from Lily.

"James! What are you doing here?"

"Lil, I need to ask you something."

"Ask me after the game, James."

"No! Please, just listen!" Lily looked at him for several seconds, then nodded her approval. James rushed on. "I've been thinking, Lil, about what is going to happen next week when we go home. I know you don't have a home to go to, and so I want to offer you mine."

"James, you've already told me I could come live with you and your parents."

"No, Lil, I want you to live in my house." He held up a key, "bought it last week."

Lily stared at the small key in his hand, and a blush crept up her cheeks. "James, what did we talk about?" She said this very quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear this private of a conversation. James smiled adoringly at her, then produced another key.

"This would be the key to your bedroom. And I don't have a copy."

Lily threw back her head and laughed. Leave it to James to invite her to move in with him and then give her the ability to lock him out of her room. She beamed out at him, and grabbed the front of his robes to bring him closer to her.

"When did you get so sweet?" she whispered in his ear.

"When I fell in love with you." He smiled sheepishly at her, his eyes searching hers for an answer.

"So when do we move in?" A huge smile broke out on his face.

"You mean it! You'll come?" Childish delight was lighting up his hazel eyes.

"Of course, you great oaf!"

"Yes!" James did a few back flips than flew back to her.

Laughing, Lily deftly took the two keys and placed them in her pocket. Then she smiled before pulling him so that he was mere inches from her face.

"Are you going to kiss me, or not?"

"So demanding…" James whispered with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

James could distantly hear the announcer. "And Potter appears to be having an intimate conversation with his girlfriend. Wonder if he is going to return back to the game anytime soon?" With a smile he quickly kissed Lily, then zoomed off to join his team.

Sirius would afterwards claim that the renewed energy the Gryffindor team displayed as they returned to play was due in large part to the fact that James had successfully gotten Lily to agree to move in with him. Indeed, James seemed to be playing with reckless abandon, he was so happy. Perhaps this explained how the Gryffindors were soon 140 points up. Yet just as James was beginning to hope that maybe they could win this game, his heart fell as he saw the Slytherin seeker go into a steep dive. James could just make out the tiny snitch hovering a few feet off the ground. The seeker was far away, but without the Gryffindor seeker in play, there was little doubt that he would catch the snitch and win the game for Slytherin, that is if James and his fellow chasers couldn't manage to score two more goals before the seeker caught the snitch. With large amounts of fear and trepidation, James grabbed the Quaffle and sped off with a quick nod at the other chasers. They had a plan for this situation, even if they had hoped to never have to put it in action.

James deftly threw the Quaffle through the goal, and didn't even flinch as the Slytherin keeper collided with him, or when he heard Lily scream out his name. He knew that the keeper would go after him, thinking he was the only one that could make the game winning goal, and James was taking the hit so that the keeper would be distracted from his fellow chasers. James allowed himself to fall backwards off his broom, and didn't struggle as he fell. Above him, he saw him teammate quietly put the Quaffle through the now unguarded hoop. He allowed himself to fall until he heard the whistle signaling that the Slytherin seeker had caught the snitch. He wasn't allowed to do magic until the game was over, or he would risk the Slytherin team getting a penalty shot that could tie the game. But once the whistle blew he quickly drew out his wand and summoned his broom. It caught him five feet from the ground. Then he once more flew over to where a sobbing Lily had been watching him plummet to the ground, her fingers covering her eyes as she was unable to watch. Before she even realized that he hadn't been hurt, he had grabbed her waist and pulled her on to the front of his broom. He flew her up high enough that the spectators wouldn't be able to see them clearly, then halted his broom.

Slowly he wiped away the tears that were still streaming down her face.

"Ahh, were you worried about me?"

"It isn't funny James Tristan Potter! I thought you were dead for sure. Don't ever pull another stunt like that, you hear!" She was half-heartedly beating her small fists against his chest.

"Lily," he said softly as he caught both her hands in his. "You didn't think I was going to die just after I got you to agree to live with me? No way would I give you up for a silly little thing like a Quidditch match." She looked at him through bleary eyes.

"Really?"

"Course! That was all planned, had it all under control."

She nodded at him, fighting desperately to keep more tears from spilling down her cheeks. Then she gave it up as a bad job and buried her face into his chest until she had calmed herself down.

"Stupid reckless boy…" she murmured into his chest. He just laughed in response and gently placed his hand under her chin, lifting her head up so that he could look into her eyes.

"And Potter, don't think for a second that I would allow you to get away with dying on me. You had better understand that I would have brought you back so that I could have the pleasure of killing you myself. You aren't getting away from me that easily."

"Lil, nothing could ever induce me to want to get away from you in the first place."

"That had better be the truth, James Potter. Cause the only way you are getting away from me is if you die."

"That wouldn't be very pleasant. 'Cause then I couldn't do this." Then he crashed his lips against hers, hungrily kissing her and pulling her closer to him.

A/N: Hope you like. I need to speed things up and get them away from Hogwarts. All my other ideas happen after they are after school. And I like the idea of James offering her a room in his house. My parents did that before they were married, as my mom had no where to go, and I have always loved that idea. Also, I am now taking suggestions for the name of the girl Remus will eventually start dating. He is going to meet her soon and I am drawing a blank at a good name for his girlfriend. So if you have any good ideas please let me know!

On another note, I have started working on another story because I just got this idea in my head. I want to work on it awhile before I post it, though. But it is called Kissing the Red Head.


	22. Life Changes

Chapter 22: Life Changes

It was the last night before summer holidays began, and the last night in Hogwarts for the Gryffindor seventh years. Peter was all for throwing a large farewell, but James and Sirius had other plans. It was their last night at Hogwarts and they were going to go out in true Marauder style. Accordingly, the four boys spent several hours racing each other around the grounds, with Remus riding on Prongs' back as it wasn't full moon, and then they spent an hour or two holed up in the Room of Requirements, planning a fitting prank for the end of their last year.

Lily and Shannyn had not been forgotten. The two friends had spent an enjoyable evening reminiscing about their years at Hogwarts and eating an inappropriate amount of chocolate. Then, at about three in the morning, the two girls quietly snuck down into the apparently disserted Common Room. There they found a room decorated with glowing candles giving a soft light and quiet and romantic music floating in the air. As soon as they stepped off the stairs, James and Sirius appeared out of thin air, having just pulled off the invisibility cloak. The two boys waved their wands simultaneously, effectively blocking off all entrances to the room so that they would not be disturbed.

And they weren't.

The two couples danced the rest of the night away, simply being happy in each others' company. Tomorrow, they would have to grow up, but today they were still just kids in love, and so they danced, happily oblivious to the cares and troubles that they would soon have to face.

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The next morning was frantic as all the students tried to find the rest of their belongings. And the Marauders seemed to have disappeared. Lily suspected that this was so that they could pull of their parting prank. The Marauders could not leave without saying goodbye.

She had tried all week to get out of James what they were planning, but he refused to talk. It wasn't until the six friends were walking down to the carriages that Lily saw what they had done. Each and every carriage had been enchanted. As soon as students entered them they immediately began flashing the colors of the houses belonging to those students. The boys had even refrained from modifying the Slytherin carriages. They had also put festive wreaths on the heads of all the thestrals. This was quite disconcerting for those students who could not see the thestrals, just the wreaths around invisible heads.

This was not all, though. When all the students had exited the castle, there was a massive explosion and hundreds of fireworks exploded in the sky above the castle. Written in the sky was a huge note:

_Don't forget us! Love – The Marauders_

And beneath the brilliant displays were images of the four boys, waving goodbye to the school and making elaborate bows to the cheering audience. The Marauders were leaving in style.

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Several hours later, the six newly graduated friends stepped off the gleaming Hogwarts Express. They had spent their last train ride playing loud games of exploding snap and reminiscing about their years at Hogwarts. They didn't really have to take the train back, they could have apparated home, but none of them could bring themselves to miss out on their last train ride. Indeed, when they got to Platform 9 ¾, they lingered for hours, telling each other funny stories, until a guard came to ask them to leave. Then, reluctantly, they each made their way home. Lily and James were last to leave, they wanted to say goodbye to all their friends. It was only when Sirius had disapparated with a small pop that Lily finally turned to James.

"So, are you going to tell me where this house is that you bought us?"

"Now, would that be very much fun?"

"Well then how am I supposed to get there?"

"I'll just take us both." He grinned cheekily at her and offered her his hand. She took it, muttering "Show off" under her breathe, and with a twist James apparated both of them away.

They landed on a quite street filled with houses that were all bigger than Lily's parents' house had been. And directly in front of them was a beautiful two story brick house with a beautiful porch and a swing built for two.

"James…" she breathed, "it's beautiful!" He beamed at her and took her hand to lead her up the walk.

"You haven't even seen most of it yet. We are only a few blocks away from the Ministry of Magic, and this is a Wizarding neighborhood, so we shouldn't have to worry too much about doing magic in front of the neighbors." He took a key from his pocket to open the front door as Lily glanced appreciatively at the large house with a bay window that looked out over the nicely kept lawn.

When the door was open, James took her hand in his and slowly showed her around the house. The first floor had a large living room with comfortable and tasteful furnishings and a large fireplace, and a dining room large enough to hold all their friends and more. The kitchen was a new experience for Lily, who had never really been in a Wizarding kitchen before. There were none of the usual appliances, but several gadgets she didn't recognize. But James seemed to have already filled it with food. When he saw her glance questioningly at this he put in,

"I think Mom sent over a few house elves yesterday to make sure the place was livable."

Lily nodded mutely, then followed James up the large staircase. He first took her to a large library. It held two desks, facing each other, and Lily could see that one already was filled with all of her favorite supplies. James quickly showed her his bedroom and the attached bathroom, and then led her over to the other door. It was shut.

"I told you I couldn't get in your room. Dad showed me how to add a magical lock that would seal the room to anyone but you, unless you invite them in."

Smiling shyly at him she dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out the small key he had given her several days ago. She unlocked the door and promptly gasped in surprise. It was the most beautiful room she had ever been in. There was a large canopy bed with silk sheets and beautiful oak furniture with a large vase of daisies on top. In the corner was a large chair and Lily was already itching to curl up in it and read. The bathroom had a large tub that was almost big enough to swim in and an elegant armoire that would hold all her toiletries. Lily turned to James, awe on her face, to see him beaming at her.

"There's more."

He pulled her over to a set of large French doors that opened onto a beautiful balcony that overlooked the large backyard. Lily could see an elegant garden with benches and trees, and she could just make out a small Quidditch pitch. It was James' house, after all. Beaming, she turned to James and hugged him tightly to her.

"It's beautiful!"

"I'm glad you like it, love."

"Thank you, James. Thank you for doing all this for me. You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"You are never any trouble. Don't you know that by now?"

He gently lifted her chin up so that he could look in her eyes, and he was startled to find tears there.

"I miss them, James."

"I know, love. I know." She angrily wiped her eyes.

"Stupid me. Here you did all this for me and I'm crying over my dead parents. I don't even have the decency to thank you properly."

"You already thanked me, Lils."

"I meant this."

She put her hands on his strong shoulders and pulled herself up to his level, then she hungrily kissed him. James groaned happily against her lips and wrapped his arms around her slender waist, securing her against him. For several minutes he was happily lost, then he sat down with his back up against the house and pulled her into his lap. He had planned it perfectly so that they could sit together and watch the sunset behind the trees, the brilliant colors washing over the garden beneath them. He placed his head on her shoulder and nuzzled into her neck.

"I love you." He whispered into her ear.

Lily, smiling happily, leaned back into him and placed one of her hands over his that was currently tracing light designs on her stomach. He took her other hand in his, tightly entwining their fingers. And they sat thus for hours, watching the sun set and the stars slowly come out. And at that moment, life was perfect.

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The next few weeks brought several changes to the lives of the six friends. Sirius moved back to his small flat a few streets from Diagon Alley, Remus and Peter found a small apartment nearby, and Shannyn spent as much time with them as possible. She was still living with her parents, unable to decide where she wanted to live. Jobs were soon found, and real life began. James and Sirius were quickly accepted into Auror training. Shannyn began Healer training. Peter had found a job in the Ministry, filing paperwork for the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Lily was a researcher in the Department for Experimental Charms. Only Remus was having a difficult time, do to his furry little problem. He found a part-time job as a shop clerk in Diagon Alley and was still searching for a job on his days off.

The six friends still found plenty of time to get together regularly, usually at Lily and James' house as it was the largest, and they enjoyed many happy nights together. Growing up would never change that.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry that it has been ages. I was on vacation and I couldn't get my computer hooked up to upload this. But I have several chapters beyond this almost ready for you. This was mostly filler, as we needed to establish the many changes before things get interesting again. The story will turn darker soon, as Voldemort is waiting to be thrice defied. I hope you like and tell me what you think!

Also, I have a tentative name for Remus' girl (coming soon!) but I am still open to suggestions.

And I posted the first chapter of a new little story, Kissing the RedHead, that is mostly just a little romance flick.

And Sephira—yes they did win the game. They managed to make the winning goal as James was distracting the opposing team with his fall. When Lily and he are talking afterwards they are on his broom high above the stands, as he wanted to get her away from prying eyes while she calmed down. Sorry if it was confusing.


	23. The First Time

Chapter 23: The First Time

Several months passed in happy bliss. Shortly after graduation all six friends were inducted into the Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization dedicated to bringing down Voldemort and his followers. Between this and their various jobs life was busy, but they still found time to have fun. The four boys spent every full moon together, running around the forests near Hogsmeade; Remus had not found a place yet to transform and so he was still using the Shrieking Shack. And the boys had not yet lost their reputation as trouble makers. James and Sirius had even been put through extensive 'punishment' regimes after the two were caught playing pranks on the other Auror trainees.

In early September Shannyn finally moved out of her parents' house. Lily had been wondering what had taken her so long until Shannyn announced that she was moving in with Sirius. It then made perfect sense, and James confessed to Lily that he had spent countless hours coaching Sirius so that he would work up the courage to ask Shannyn to move in with him.

Before any of them had realized it, it had been almost six months since they had finished with Hogwarts. James and Sirius were doing so well in their training that a rare exception had been made and they had been moved into the second year class. Lily was ecstatic about this, as it would mean that James was out of training that much quicker, until one night when the consequences of James excelling were brought clearly home to her.

James had taken Lily out to dinner one Friday night to celebrate his success. They had finished eating and were walking hand-in-hand through a park several blocks from their home. Neither was talking much, but simply taking pleasure in the other's company. Until Lily felt James stiffen beside of her.

"Did you hear that?"

"No. I didn't hear anything."

"It sounded like an apparition crack."

"Don't be silly, it was probably just a neighborhood kid or something, or Sirius coming to try and scare us. Mad-Eye has you all paranoid."

James nodded reluctantly, Mad-Eye did tend to have that effect on people. He had just pulled her into a hug when he heard a sound behind him that made his blood run cold.

"You really should learn not to listen to Mudbloods, boy. She's just going to get you killed one day."

With one fluid motion James turned around, his wand raised, and pushed Lily securely behind him. He kept one hand securely holding hers, as if he wanted to know where she was at all times. When he turned to the speaker he was glad he had done this.

There, barely five feet in front of him, stood the menacing shape of a man that he had only ever heard of before.

Voldemort.

With a quick glance at Lily, James turned cockily to the man in front of him. Attitude was everything in these circumstances. If he was going to die tonight he was going to die proudly defending the woman he loved.

"Tom, fancy seeing you here. To what do we owe this unexpected horror?"

"Your arrogance will be your downfall, boy. Unless, of course, it is put to a good use."

"And what might that be?"

"Oh, I think you know. I can offer you everything: power, wealth, and the respect of the entire wizarding world."

"I don't think so. I already have all the power I want, my family is plenty wealthy enough without your help, and who needs the respect of the world when I have the love of the most beautiful woman in it?"

"She is dirty, boy. I can find you so much better after I have disposed of her." James' hand tightened around Lily's.

"Doubt it."

"Join me, and I will give you the world."

"I thought I already told you I didn't want it?"

"That is because you foolishly believe that you can protect those you claim to love. A horrible weakness—love. If you can overcome it you will be unstoppable. All you must do is kill the one holding you back. Kill the Mudblood and join me, and together we will rule the world."

"Tom, I'm going to have to ask you not to talk about the woman I love like that, it tends to make me very mad, you see."

"Fine, boy, we'll do this my way." He pointed his long thin wand at James, and before James even recognized what he was doing Voldemort had sent a spell at him.

Suddenly, Lily felt James slacken in front of her, and his eyes glazed over. In horror, Lily watched as the man she loved was placed under the Imperius Curse by the most powerful evil wizard of all time.

"Kill the Mudblood, boy." Fear flooded Lily's mind. He was going to make James kill her and the only way she could stop it would be to hurt James, something she couldn't bring herself to do.

But Lily was brought out of her desperate thoughts by harsh laughter. With a shock she realized that James was laughing at the tall figure in front of him.

"You think some silly spell will ever be able to make me kill Lily? Not a chance buddy."

Lily, her breathing beginning again, looked up in time to see the momentary shock in Voldemort's red eyes.

"I hope you are ready for the consequences of your actions, boy. I always get what I want."

This time, his wand was on Lily, and before James had time to react Voldemort had screamed "Crucio!" and she had collapsed on the ground in pain, her screams tearing through the night quiet.

But before James had recovered from the shock enough to try anything, the screams abruptly stopped. Once more, Voldemort's eyes widened in surprise. He had not lifted the curse, and he knew for certain that she was still in pain, but the girl had somehow managed to bottle her pain, and she now stood defiantly in front of him, only her clenched fists and tight mouth betraying the fact that pain still wracked every inch of her body.

But James was not celebrating for nothing that night, he was truly an excellent fighter, and within seconds he was raining curses down on Voldemort with such speed that Voldemort had to lift the curse on Lily in order to fight him.

"Lily!" James screamed at her. "Go! Now! Get help!"

"I can't" she yelled in frustration. "Anti-disapparation jinx!"

James growled angrily and launched himself at Lily, pulling both of them behind a nearby tree. He could hear Voldemort laughing on the other side. They were trapped and James could see that Lily was fading fast, the curse had taken its toll on her and she wouldn't be able to fight much longer.

"Lily," he whispered desperately, "we need to get to that forest over there." He pointed to the trees that were barely twenty feet behind him. "Do you think you can make it?"

He watched as she gritted her teeth in pain and nodded.

"Okay, on the count of three we make a run for it." James pulled her up to her feet and grasped his wand tightly in his hand. "One…" he could hear Voldemort's laughter coming closer… "two…" he was almost there… "three!"

And right when the tall looming figure came into view James and Lily sprinted for the trees, James half dragging Lily along. But just before they reached the forest cover Lily fainted and crashed to the ground. With a roar of anger he scooped her into his arms and bolted into the trees. Once he was hidden he quickly transformed and, with Lily sprawled on his back, he ran like mad.

A/N: And things begin to get interesting… Let me know what you think. This story is the only thing keeping me sane until the seventh book comes out, so encouragement is greatly appreciated!


	24. The Aftermath

Chapter 24: The Aftermath

Lily was vaguely becoming aware of the world. Her whole body was stiff and she couldn't seem to move or even open her eyes. She could tell that she was lying in some kind of bed, and she could vaguely make out the feel of someone holding desperately on to her hand.

She heard a door opening and the sound of someone coming into the room.

"Prongs," it was Sirius, "you can't stay here forever mate."

"Just until she wakes up."

"The Healers say she'll be fine. She just needs to regain her strength. You haven't been home since you brought her here a week ago."

"No, I need to stay with her."

"Come on mate, why don't you let me sit with her for awhile, so you can get some rest."

"No. I can't leave her, Sirius. I love her."

"I know."

"No, you don't understand. I almost lost her. I just need to be here when she wakes up."

"Fine, at least eat something, though."

"I'm not hungry."

"Prongs, if you don't eat you are going to pass out before she even wakes up."

Lily heard a grunt, and she tried to smile, but failed miserably when she couldn't get her mouth to move. That was just like Sirius, to try and take care of James, and it was just like James to stubbornly refuse to leave her side.

Her last thought as she drifted back to sleep was that she really did love that man.

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When she woke up again Lily was thrilled to realize that this time she could actually move some. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head and realized that James was sleeping with his head on her bed and her hand tightly clenched in his. Wincing in pain, Lily squeezed his hand—she didn't think she could muster up the strength to actually talk yet.

But James, who was anxiously waiting for any sign of life in her, instantly jumped up, his haggard face breaking into a smile.

"You're awake!" He flung his arms around her and hugged her limp form tightly to him, seeming to forget that she was probably still in vast amounts of pain. Only when she feebly tried to push him off of her did he set her gently back down. "Sorry… I just missed you… I'll go get the Healers."

And he practically sprinted out the door.

A few minutes later he returned with a team of Healers who began to prod and poke Lily and hand her goblet after goblet of steaming potions. The last thing she remembered as she drifted off to sleep once more was James in the corner talking excitedly in a mirror.

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Lily woke up to the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore.

"Hello, Lily. It is wonderful to see you awake once more."

"Hello, Professor." Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Now Lily, I am no longer your teacher. You may call me Albus." She smiled weakly at him.

"Where's James." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily at her.

"I believe, as soon as Sirius learned you had woken up, that he came and forced James home for some much needed rest. The Healers tell me that Sirius had to stun him and tie him up to get him to leave you."

Lily stared at him in shock. When she had last seen James he looked as if he hadn't eaten in a week, which he probably hadn't. She had a hard time believing he would put up such a fight over leaving her.

"But that is not what I came to discuss with you." The twinkle left his eyes and he looked seriously down at her for several moments, as if making sure she was well enough to hear what he had to tell her. "It is important that you realize what you have accomplished."

"We fought Voldemort."

"Yes, you fought Voldemort. And not only did you escape alive, you escaped with no lasting harm. This alone is remarkable. The only others to have ever done that are myself and Frank and Alice Longbottom, and they are both outstanding and fully trained Aurors. What you did was truly amazing." Lily blushed. "But that is not all. James has told me that not only did he resist Voldemort's Imperius Curse, but that you were able to fight through the pain of the Cruciatus Curse. It is important that you realize that no one has ever been able to do either of those two things. Voldemort's Imperius is so strong that he has been able to make the most powerful of Aurors kill their own families, and his Cruciatus, I can say from personal experience, is so painful that only you were able to stand defiantly without screaming in pain."

"Prof… Albus, that's impossible. James and I aren't special; Voldemort must not have used the full force of the curses on us. We couldn't have done that."

"No, Lily. The two of you are remarkably special. And I tell you that both Voldemort and myself were thoroughly startled by the feats that you two have accomplished. You have my congratulations, and my esteem. Goodnight, Miss Evans."

And with a click of his heels he was gone, leaving Lily to her very confused thoughts.

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Several hours later, James returned to find Lily sitting up and reading. James certainly looked better. Sirius had seen to it that he had eaten, showered, and gotten some undisturbed sleep before he would let him return to the hospital. When James saw that Lily was awake his face split into a gigantic grin.

"Good morning, beautiful! You are looking good today."

"Well thank you, James." She smiled sweetly up at him. "You are looking better yourself. I see Sirius finally managed to get you to eat something."

"How did you know about that?"

"Just because my eyes were closed doesn't mean I couldn't hear anything."

The colored drained out of James' face. He didn't want Lily to have heard all of his and Sirius' conversations. He had spent the better part of two days planning some very important things for her. Nearly losing her made him realize that he wanted to make their relationship a little more permanent.

"What else did you hear?" he asked weakly.

"Nothing…" she looked at him quizzically. "Why, is something wrong?"

"No," some of the color was returning to his face. "No, absolutely nothing is wrong now that you're awake."

"Okay," he was hiding something, but she didn't want to push him. He would tell her when he was ready. "The Healers say that I can go home tomorrow, as long as you promise to make sure I take all my potions and get plenty of rest." James' face lit up with happiness.

"You get to come home! That's wonderful! I don't have to be back at work for another week, so I can take care of you."

"You don't have to take care of me, James."

"I know," he grinned down at her, "but I like to take care of you."

"Really, you like to take care of me?" He nodded enthusiastically. "Well," her smile turned slightly devilish, "then I can think of a thing or two you can do for me."

"Anything, love."

"I don't believe you have kissed me in over a week." His grin got even bigger, if that is possible.

"Well," he slowly walked around the bed and sat on the side, his hands entwining themselves in hers, "if you insist…" And his mouth was on hers, hungrily and passionately letting her know how very glad he was that she was better. But he was fully aware of the fact that she was still weak, and far too quickly to satisfy himself he pulled away from her and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead.

"I love you, Lils." He gave her a brief but tender hug. "But I think you need some rest now. Why don't you get some sleep?"

"Okay, but… are you going to leave?"

"Not a chance, babe. Actually…" he hesitated, "can I just hold you tonight?" He looked up at her, pleading in his hazel eyes. "I just want to know that you are there, that you are safe."

In response Lily took his hand and pulled him down to the bed, scooting over so that there was room for him. James lay down and pulled her form against him, wrapping his arms protectively around her waist where she then laced her fingers into his. And thus the two fell asleep, happy in the mere presence of the one they loved.

A/N: I know, I know, you were all really mad at me for the way I left that. But hey, it got me a lot of reviews, so I'm not complaining.

And Sephira, the romance will be coming back soon, even for Remus… see next chapter. And did you catch the hint about Lily and James in this chapter?

Messyblackhair66, thanks for the persistence. It is greatly appreciated.

And I desperately agree thestralwhisperer, but I actually think that at least one of the Weasley's are going to die. Probably Molly or one of the twins. But that is because someone close to Harry has to die and I don't think it will be the trio or Ginny. Just my opinion though. Kind of hope I'm wrong.

And ktlyn, please don't die! I would be sad. (he he)

So hope this relieved some of the tension… only a little over 18 days left! (Mutters to herself "I can make it.")


	25. The Marauder Matchmaking Company

Chapter 25: The Marauder Matchmaking Company

James brought Lily home, and dutifully cared for her, slowly nursing her back to full health. And when she was ready, he helped her one morning to return to work, where she was jubilantly welcomed. One of her friends even took her out for a celebration lunch, glad to finally have her back.

Lily and Gwen had become great friends in the few months since Lily had started working there. The two were the only girls in their department and had bonded almost immediately. Gwen was a shy American who had moved to England last year for some reason that she had refused to tell Lily. Or at least Gwen was shy until you got to know her, then she was a vibrant and passionate girl with short curly blonde hair that framed her face and set off her pale blue eyes. Indeed, Gwen's personality had immediately made Lily want to set her up with Remus, but James insisted that she had to pass his test before that could happen. Not every girl was good enough for his werewolf friend.

Thus, a few weeks after Lily had returned to work, Lily and Shannyn invited Gwen out to dinner. The three girls went to a popular wizarding restaurant located in the upscale part of London. But they had hardly begun to eat their dinner when the quiet of the restaurant was broken by the voices of three seemingly drunken men.

Seemingly meaning that James, Sirius, and Peter had disguised themselves and were staggering around the restaurant behaving like five year olds.

The three men came up to the girls' table and started trying to ask Gwen for a dance.

"I don't dance with drunks, thank you."

"But… we're not really funk… I mean drunk. Just a little tipsy is all." Sirius in a heavily accented voice whined at her. "You really should dance with me, I'm quite the batch… I mean catch, you know."

"I'm sure." Gwen wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Oh, I am. Did you know I just drafted the newest legislation for the restriction and capture of wolveweres… um, werewolves?"

The color drained out of Gwen's face.

"What did you say?" There was an edge of steel to her voice, but Sirius pressed on.

"Yep, I have single-handedly helped to put into affect the walls… laws that will require all werewolves to be tagged and tracked."

"Ain't my mate the best?" Peter asked drunkenly.

"He knows what he is doing, restricting those beasts." James this time. "They don't deserve the rights of a normal wizard."

Gwen had had enough. She stood up, her face livid with anger, and she smacked all three boys across the face.

"How dare you! How dare you do this to them! They already have to deal with so much in life, and you are just making it worse. You are the real animals. Why should we treat a werewolf any different? It isn't their fault, they have no control. They are human just like the rest of us, and they should be treated as such." Sparks were almost shooting out of her eyes, and they had turned hard and now looked almost white.

The three boys backed up, scared of the livid woman in front of them. Then they turned tail and ran out the door. Gwen, still fuming, slowly took her seat again, then, abruptly, she lowered her head and began to cry silent tears.

"Gwen!" Lily was instantly at her side with an arm around her shoulder. "What is wrong?"

"How could they? Don't they know what it is like?"

"Why?" Lily prodded gently. "Do you know someone who is a werewolf."

"I did." Understanding went across both girls' faces.

"What happened?" Shannyn gently asked.

"My best friend was bitten two years ago. She was ridiculed and shunned so much that she took her own life. That was right before I moved here. No one should feel so isolated that suicide is their only way out."

Lily wrapped her arms around Gwen and pulled her into a hug, silently trying to comfort her. So that was why she had moved here, it made since now. Maybe she really was perfect for Remus.

The boys certainly thought so. The girls had no sooner exited the restaurant then all three boys, out of their disguises this time, found them and immediately dragged them off to a local dance hall. There James and Sirius spent over an hour trying to convince Gwen to let them set her up with a friend of theirs. They spent ages telling her every good thing they could about him, and even went so far as to tell her they had hand selected her for the amazing honor of being able to date their friend.

At this Gwen blushed fiercely, muttering about how she didn't think it was a good idea.

"And why not?" James asked.

"Well," her blush deepened and she looked down quickly at the floor. "I kind of have a crush on someone."

"Oh." Sirius looked like Christmas had been cancelled. "Well, is he good enough for you?"

"I think so," she murmured meekly. "He's a great guy, tall and shy, with sandy hair, and he's wonderfully nice and caring. He's a clerk at Flourish and Blotts, and he is so smart…" she drifted off happily, lost in thought.

Thus she missed the look of mischief that passed across the two boys' faces.

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Lily and Shannyn spent the next week trying to convince Gwen to ask her mystery guy out, little realizing that James and Sirius were spending that same time trying to convince Remus that he was ready to date. Remus put up with this for several days, never letting the boys know that, far from needing their advice, he was interested in a girl he had seen at work.

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Gwen walked anxiously into Flourish and Blotts. She was a little nervous, as she had finally convinced herself that today she was going to do more than flirt with the cute clerk. She had carefully dressed that morning, and paid extra attention to every detail, but when she walked into the bookstore and saw the tall, sandy-haired boy behind the counter, her nerve momentarily left her.

So instead of approaching and talking to him, she hurriedly tried to duck out of sight behind a tall display of books.

She wasn't quick enough.

She felt a small tap on her shoulder and turned to find the handsome clerk smiling down at her.

"Hello, miss. Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"Oh," she blushed furiously, "I was just looking for a book on… um… healing potions."

"Well, I happen to have become somewhat adept at healing potions myself, for various reasons, let me take you over to that section."

He guided her over to a section located in the corner of the store, his hand gently resting on the small of her back as he led her. Gwen barely controlled the shivers running down her spine.

"This is the best book for home remedies," he said, handing her a large black and silver volume.

"Thank you," she replied shyly. "You sure do seem knowledgeable about this kind of thing."

"Well," he began with a half smile, "you get that way when your best friends are the biggest trouble makers in the school."

"Yeah," she breathed, keeping her eyes looking anywhere but into the soft brown eyes of the boy standing in front of her. "I'm Gwen, by the way," she said, thrusting out her hand to shake his.

"Nice to meet you, Gwen," he responded, taking her hand and shaking it gently then lifting it up and placing a quick kiss on it. "I'm Remus." He watched her carefully as a slow blush crept up her cheeks. "Um… I know I just met you properly and all, but I was wondering if…" he hesitated.

"Yes?" Her eyes shot up to his and the blue seemed to darken with intensity.

"If maybe you might like to get a bite to eat with me sometime?"

"I would love to." She beamed at him.

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"So Remus is actually bringing a date with him?" Lily asked James as the two strolled down the street to the restaurant where Remus had made reservations.

"That's what he said. Shame, I really thought he and Gwen would have been great together." Lily playfully hit his arm.

"Don't even say that. It is much better this way, he found someone on his own. And I'm sure she is wonderful."

"Like you?" he asked, pulling her closer to him and layering soft kisses down her neck and bare shoulders.

"James!" she pushed him gently away. "This is hardly the time."

"And why not?" he pouted.

"Because, we're here."

"Damn."

The two walked into the restaurant, hands clasped tightly together, to find Sirius, Shannyn, Peter, and his date Jane already sitting at a table waiting for them.

"Hey you two lovebirds," Sirius began, "any idea who this mystery girl is?"

"Nope." James responded, carefully helping Lily into her seat. "But she had better be good enough for our Moony."

"Of course she is." Came a voice from behind them, and they all turned to Remus. "May I introduce my date, Gwen Johnson."

James and Sirius were staring at her with their mouths open, while Lily and Shannyn had jumped up to hug their friend, leaving Remus standing confusedly watching them all.

"Am I missing something here?" He asked when the excitement had died down and they were all seated around the table.

"Well, dear" Gwen began, "Lily and I are friends from work and these two crazy fellows have been trying to set me up with a friend of theirs all week." She turned to look at the sheepish looks the two boys were giving Remus. "You were trying to set me up with Remus, weren't you?"

"Um… might have been." James answered.

"Well, you certainly were persistent."

"Well, after you passed the test…" Sirius said until he was cut off by a sharp punch from James.

"What test?" She looked intently at the two boys, who were avidly avoiding her gaze. "That was you in the restaurant, wasn't it? Acting all drunk and going on about werewolves?" Remus tensed beside her.

"What?" he asked his two friends, his voice a low and angry growl.

"Calm down, Moony." James began hastily. "We didn't tell her anything, just wanted to make sure she was good enough for you and all."

Gwen looked quickly between the three boys. Remus was glaring at his friends like he was about to kill them and James and Sirius were sitting there looking extremely guilty.

"Someone had better clue me in as to what's going on."

Remus' eyes shot towards her, all anger now replaced by pure and unadulterated fear.

"Remus?" she asked hesitantly. "What's wrong? And why were they being so protective of you?" Reluctantly, Remus turned towards her, and took her hand in his.

"Well, that's a long story. Um… you see, I haven't really dated much because of… well a little problem I have. Actually I've only ever been on a date with…"

"Me!" Piped up Lily, and Remus rolled his eyes at her.

"That hardly qualifies as a real date, Lils." Then he turned his attention back to Gwen. "They just get worried about me; want to make sure that no one is going to hurt me."

"Why would I hurt you?"

"Well…" he looked at Lily and Shannyn, pleading for help, but the two girls merely nodded encouragingly towards Gwen. "I told you, I have a little problem… and they were just checking to make sure that you might be okay with it… that you wouldn't think any less of me…" he trailed off, fear in his face.

"But all they asked me about was…" a look of understanding passed across Gwen's face. "Oh… I understand, I think."

Remus looked at her miserably, then hastily stood up and started to walk out, his hands clenched at his side. Gwen turned confusedly to the rest of the table.

"Where is he going?"

"That's just the way he is," Lily responded quietly. "He is so used to everyone running away from him once they find out that he has started to just save himself the trouble, he tends to leave if he thinks anyone is going to reject him."

A look of fierce determination swept across Gwen's face, and she ran after him, reaching him just as he was about to exit the restaurant. As she caught up with him she threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself up to give him a soft kiss. Remus stared at her for several seconds, then wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her back up to meet his mouth.

Back at the table James and Sirius were beaming at each other, and raised their glasses to each other.

"To the Marauder Matchmaking Company."

A/N: Thanks for all those who submitted names, and most especially to fudge-butter. I really do like the idea of Gwen. I hope you all approve of her for Remus, I like her myself.


	26. Questions Asked

Chapter 26: Questions Asked

Somewhere in the northern most reaches of Scotland a secluded house that had not been approached for years was approached by a small figure in a black hood. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, the figure slowly knocked on the door and stepped in. Inside a tall figure with eyes as red as a snake's was pacing in front of a fire.

"You're late, Bella."

The man had not even looked up, but he knew who it was. A woman with glistening black hair, beautiful and yet dangerous. The only woman he truly trusted.

"Forgive me my Lord." Her words were haughty. "I had to deal with some… complications." A grin of truly evil proportions blossomed over her face. It took away from her beauty.

"Did you accomplish the task I gave you? Did you find the weak link in the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Yes, master." The man turned to look at her for the first time, his eyes alight in the near dark of the cabin.

"Well?"

"There seem to be two who have the most potential to be… persuaded to the cause. Benjy Fenwick and Peter Pettigrew."

"You think they can be turned?"

"Possibly. Only…"

"Well?" His impatience was barely contained.

"Pettigrew is probably the weakest. Only, he is protected by his friends."

"Who are his friends?"

"Potter, Black, Lupin, and Evans."

"Potter?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Excellent." And the man, though he barely resembled one anymore, threw back his head and laughed hysterically. When he had calmed himself he turned once more to the woman in front of him. "Have Rodolphus trail Fenwick, try to lure him. And you, my pet," he ran one long thin finger down her face, "you will lure Pettigrew."

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Gwen was perfect for Remus. Over the next several weeks the two spent most of their free time together, usually secluded in the corner of a quiet café or curled up together on the couch in Lily and James' living room. Gwen even got along so well with Lily and Shannyn that the two girls stole her away one night and spent hours talking and laughing merrily like school girls.

A relationship suited Remus. It gave him more confidence and helped lift his spirits as he continued to fruitlessly search for a job that would not discriminate against him for something he couldn't control.

All too soon, Valentine's Day had arrived, and the three happy couples spent an enjoyable evening at a local restaurant, then wandering the park nearby in blissful happiness. None of the girls noticed the furtive glances that Remus and Sirius were sending James' way, or the unusual fact that James barely opened his mouth.

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The next day, Lily spent an exhausting ten hours at work trying to work on a new charm designed to protect against the Unforgivable Curses. The other members of her department were skeptical about her ability to find something, but Lily was determined to try, especially after recent experiences. When she arrived home, shortly after seven, all she could think of was taking a luxurious bath before falling asleep. These thoughts faded the second she opened the door.

The entire floor was littered with flowers—lilies, daisies, and roses of all colors. Through them, a trail of red rose petals led up the stairs. Curious, she followed the petals up to her room, where a gorgeous dress was waiting on the door—black and long with green accents and ribbon. Excitedly, she slipped into the dress—admiring the way it fit her perfectly. Then she quickly brushed out her long hair and put on the emerald earrings James had given her, followed by the necklace with lily and moon intertwined. Somehow, she realized that tonight was important and she wanted to look her best.

As she stepped once more out of her room she saw that a new trail had been laid on the ground—James had to have been lurking somewhere in his cloak as she had entered. This trail led out onto the patio to a candlelit table for two. Lily recognized the tantalizing smell of her favorite dish—steak with a French sauce that was Mrs. Potter's specialty. Standing smiling at her, James stood with a brilliant bouquet of dazzling roses. He was wearing a Muggle tux.

"I thought Valentine's Day was yesterday," Lily asked with a smile.

"Oh, it was. But don't you just hate doing things the way everyone expects you to? And besides, this way it is just our day, no one else's."

"I love you, James Potter," Lily beamed at the man in front of her.

"Good," he said cockily, "then you won't mind the horrible taste of this dinner I made."

"You made?"

"Yep! Spent all day with Mum trying to learn how to."

Lily threw back her head and laughed. That was just like James—he always tried to do everything himself, at least when it came to her. He had never totally gotten rid of his arrogance, but she loved that about him.

After a lovely dinner filled with endless talk and not a small amount of snogging (and the dinner was fantastic, despite James' concerns), James pulled Lily to her feet and excitedly asked her if she would like a ride. There then followed a long run in the moonlight until Lily was completely lost and unable to recognize the lake that James had stopped by.

Once there, James took her in his arms and softly danced with her to music only he could hear, pausing every several minutes to satisfy himself with a long and deep kiss. Then he paused, tilting her head up with his fingers so that he was staring into her deep emerald eyes.

"Do you realize just how much I love you?"

"Yes," she breathed.

"Are you sure?" He gently stroked her cheek. "A couple of weeks ago Voldemort tried to get me to kill you, and when he did the only thing I could think of was that he was asking me to literally rip my own heart out and eat it myself." Her breathe hitched. "I love you more than life itself Lily, and I can't imagine life without you."

Gently, as she watched him with wide eyes, James stepped away from her and knelt before her, reaching into his pocket to bring out a small box. Nestled inside was a small ring—a delicate band studded the entire way around with small diamonds. He carefully took her hand in his.

"Lils, I love you so much, and it is time the world knew it. Will you marry me?"

Eyes wide and wet with tears of happiness, she stared at him for several long seconds, causing James to start to sweat out of nervousness. Finally, she gently took the ring out of his hand and slid it onto her delicate finger.

"Is that a yes?"

"What else would it be, you daft boy?"

"Just checking."

Then he stood up and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her and spinning her around in a large circle before hungrily kissing her. Then he set her down and pulled slightly away from her.

"Um… we might want to go tell the others now."

"Why so soon?"

"Because, I think Sirius might have already wet himself in anticipation."

Laughing merrily, she grabbed his hand and apparated both of them to the center of Sirius' apartment. She had hardly even caught her breath before the air was once more knocked out of her by a very fierce hug and a cry of "Future Mrs. Prongs!"

A/N: He he… laughs evilly over the fact that she put those two scenes together. But don't you love me anyways? Hope you like. I started posting a new story, I Will Follow You Into the Dark. It is AU and very different, but I like it.

Sadly, we are getting to the point of the story where things get dark and sad. And they don't ever really improve. But we all new that when we started out. And on a happier note, Order of the Phoenix was absolutely amazing.


	27. The Impetus of Death

Chapter 27: The Impetus of Death

It was good for Lily that she had the happy thought of the ring on her finger to help her through the weeks that came next. The Order had not suffered such a streak of deaths since its creation, and it was definitely taking its toll. The day after he proposed, James came home from training with the grave news that Marlene McKinnon and her entire family had been murdered that day. That night Lily had spent curled up in his arms, sobbing. She had developed a friendship with Marlene since joining the Order, and it was hard for Lily to accept the news of her death.

Lily awoke the next day with James' arm wrapped tightly around her waist and his other hand idly playing with the brilliant ring on her finger. She looked up at him to see a deep brooding look in his eyes.

"Let's get married soon, Lil."

She blinked at him, taken a little by surprise. They had not even discussed a possible date for their wedding yet.

"I don't want to die without being married to you… and, well… these days you can never be too sure." He responded to her unasked question.

Gently, Lily sat up and placed herself gently on his lap. Then she took his face in her hands and lovingly ran her fingers over the lines of his jaw.

"I'm not going anywhere, James."

"I know, but…"

But he was cut off as she forcefully crashed her mouth on to his, silencing his protest. Several minutes later she pulled back, panting for air.

"But I will marry you as soon as you want, because I can't wait to be your wife." She grinned impishly at him and pulled her body flush against his. "That and only then can I tell you how to unlock my door."

James hugged her tightly to him, breathing in the light flowery scent of her hair.

"Let's plan for next month, shall we? That is if we can get everything done by then."

"That would be lovely. Although I don't really want a big wedding. I won't have any family there after all. I just want it to be your family and our close friends."

"Good. Then I don't have to pretend to be all interested in the precise color of pink that the chair cushions will be and make sure they will match the ribbon of the large tent under which we will be married."

She laughed merrily and pulled him back to her for another searing kiss.

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Two days later the Order lost another member. And they only ever found pieces of Benjy Fenwick. He must have truly made the Death Eaters angry for such a death. James came home to Lily frantically cleaning the house, the letter bearing the news on the table. It took him an hour to calm her down. Once more she spent the night crying in his arms.

It was the very next day that Lily sat down and planned practically the entire wedding. She decided to hold the ceremony at James' old home. It was beautiful and had the added bonus of being extremely well protected. The only people she invited were James' parents, they boys, and her three closest friends—Shannyn, Gwen, and Alice Longbottom. Lily and Alice had been working together on Order missions for several months, and had grown remarkably close as a consequence. Sirius was to be best man, of course, with Shannyn as Maid of Honor. And Lily had asked Remus and Peter to escort her down the isle. They were the closest thing she had to family. Dumbledore would be officiating.

James came home that day to find an unusually calm Lily, who didn't respond to his questions besides a polite inquiry of what color dress robes he wished to wear.

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Dorcas Meadows was the next Order member to go missing. The rumor was that Voldemort had killed her himself, evidently trying to get information out of her that she refused to give him. Seeing as how she hadn't reacted very well to the last few deaths, James might have wished to keep this from Lily for awhile. Unfortunately, it was Lily who heard the news of Dorcas' death while under James' invisibility cloak spying on Death Eater activity. Lily had barely contained herself enough to get back home before breaking down and collapsing in the front room, leaving a baffled James to try and comfort her.

The next day Lily went and picked out her wedding dress and the dresses for her three bridesmaids. Then she came home and dragged a thoroughly bewildered James to the robe shop where he was fitted for a new set of dress robes—deep scarlet as only a true Gryffindor would wear. Lily had laughed and reminded him that he was no longer at school, and he had only pouted and said he didn't care.

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It was with great reluctance that Sirius apparated to James and Lily's house several days later with grave news. And when a haggard James answered the door Sirius truly wished he didn't have to say what he had come to say.

"Hey Prongs. How are you buddy?"

"Alright. Little worried about Lil. She hasn't dealt well with recent… er… events. But let's not talk about that now."

Sirius looked guiltily at his best mate, and James' face fell.

"Not another one?"

"You'd better get Lily. I don't want to have to say this more than once."

James nodded glumly and disappeared up the stairs, returning several minutes later with his arm wrapped around Lily's waist. She didn't look good. Her hair hung limp and her eyes had taken on a hunted deadly look.

"Hello Sirius," she said, embracing him tightly to her.

"'Lo Lily. Maybe you'd better sit down."

She nodded mutely and sat down on the couch, watching as Sirius paced nervously in front of the fireplace.

"We lost the Prewetts today." He said abruptly. Then he continued quickly, ignoring Lily's sharp intake of breath and the tears now falling silently down her face. "They went out like heroes though. Took ten Death Eaters to bring them down, and they killed five of them before falling. Dumbledore reckons that Voldemort is trying to break the Order. And it seems to be working."

Lily stood up suddenly, angrily wiping the tears from her eyes.

"It had better not be working. We are not going to let him do this to us. We are going to fight back. And if he comes for any more of us we will be ready. I am not going to lose anyone else to this war!" Lily's eyes were shining with an intensity that neither of them had seen before. And she was radiating an air of supreme power. She paced several times around the room, her fists clenched at her sides. Then she rounded on Sirius, he backed away hastily from her. "And Sirius," but her voice had softened once again, "James and I are getting married this Saturday. It would be lovely if you could join us."

"Saturday…" sputtered Sirius. "I thought you weren't getting married till next month at least." He glanced hastily at James who simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Well," the fire was back in her eyes, "if I die soon I don't want Voldemort to have robbed me of my wedding day.

A/N: Hope you like. I loved reading Deathly Hallows this weekend. I haven't decided just how much of it to incorporate. But I'll let you know later on. I have pretty much the rest of the story planned out. Looks like about 12 more chapters. But of course, things always change. But I don't know if I'll be able to update really fast as I have huge exams coming up. But I'll try. Thanks for all your ideas and comments!


	28. Once Again

Chapter 28: Once Again

"James, I'm sorry, but I don't want to send either you or Lily out on a mission so close to your wedding. Especially as Voldemort has a particular reason to try and harm the two of you." Dumbledore was sitting calmly behind the desk in his tower office, watching James pace angrily in front of him. James did not take kindly to being told to lie low.

"It doesn't make sense, Professor!" James said crossly. "You know that I am one of the best fighters in the Order. Why can't you let me go out and help the boys?"

"No, James. I will not let you die before your wedding. Go home, James."

James, anger seeming to roll off of him, turned and left the office, slamming the door loudly on his way out. He muttered furiously to himself the whole way down to Hogsmeade. And instead of apparating to the safety of his home, he appeared in the hall outside of Sirius' apartment and proceeded to pound on the door.

"Coming, coming…" came through the door, "you don't have to pound so loudly… oh, Prongs. What are you doing here? Thought Dumbledore wanted you to keep a low profile till after the wedding?"

James pushed his way angrily past his best friend and resumed his pacing in front of the fire.

"He does. He won't let me go with you guys tonight."

"It's alright mate. We'll be fine without you. It's just a routine spying mission. You just make sure you live long enough to see Lily become a Potter."

"Of course I want to live to see my own wedding, Padfoot." James' anger began to evaporate at the happy prospect of Lily Potter. "But I don't like sitting around all comfortable while you three are out there risking your lives. I want to be there to back you up."

"I know, Prongs," Sirius said as he put a reassuring arm around James' shoulders. "But I promise, the boys and I will be fine."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Tell you what, mate. The second things start to look bad I'll send a message straight to you and you can come be a hero, alright?"

"Promise?" James looked up hopefully.

"Marauder's Oath."

"Fine. You be careful tonight."

"I always am."

James let out a great guffaw of laughter, and made his way to the door. But he stopped with his hand on the handle and turned back around to look at his friend.

"And Padfoot, I would much rather if you didn't have to wake me up tonight."

"I know, buddy. Go get some sleep. We have a wedding in three days to get ready for."

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James was deep in happy dreams of the day when Lily would finally be his when he was startled awake by a blinding light. Shaking the sleep out of his eyes he looked up to see a giant silver dog standing in front of him. All thoughts of sleep forgotten at the sight, James hastily sat up, starring intently at the Patronus he recognized as belonging to Sirius. Only Sirius would be self-centered enough to be his own Patronus. Suddenly Sirius' anxious voice came from the great dog.

"Help! Bella's got Moony, and you know her. Too many to get him back on our own."

The message delivered the silvery Patronus faded into nothingness as James raced out of bed and hastily threw clothes on then proceeded to run for the door with his cloak in one hand and his wand in the other. But he hadn't gotten three steps out of his door when Lily appeared in front of him, fully clothed and clutching her own wand.

"I'm going with you."

James came to a crashing halt.

"No, Lily. I will not lose you."

"I heard the message, James. And you know I am the only one of you besides Remus who can do a proper healing spell. If he is really hurt you'll need me. You know we can't take him to Mungo's without a lot of awkward questions."

James stared at her, a furious battle being fought in his head. He did not want to lose his friends, but the thought of losing Lily three days before their wedding sent an icy chill down his spine. But Moony was hurt…

"Fine," James said with great effort. "But we are going under the cloak."

"Naturally." Lily smiled at him, then took his hand as they hastily made their way out of the house. Lily had only last week put up Anti-Disapparation Charms on the houses of all of her friends.

Tightly holding hands and hunched under the cloak, Lily and James appeared in the middle of a massive fight. Spells were shooting everywhere and James was proud that Sirius and Peter were putting up such a good fight on their own. He quickly surveyed the scene and saw that Remus was crumpled unconscious inside a circle of Death Eaters. In front stood the regal form of Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix Black, unhooded and haughty.

Silently and carefully, stilling tightly holding hands, Lily and James crept around to the back of the group until they were feet away from the still form of Remus. Lily cast a nonverbal Disillusionment spell on James and then silently slid away from him, the cloak still around her. And then, after quietly counting to ten, they attacked.

The Death Eaters were not expecting an invisible attack from behind. Before they had even determined where the spells were coming from Lily and James had leveled half of them with determined Stunners. At the same time Sirius and Peter came running forward, tacking advantage of the distraction, and managed to whittle the number of fighting Death Eaters down to Bella.

"My dear cousin, it seems you have friends willing to die for you." There was laughter in her voice.

"You are not going to kill them, Bella."

"No, but I might."

Sirius's face fell as he turned around to the source of the voice. Tall and menacing as always, Lord Voldemort was standing directly behind Sirius, watching him carefully. Behind Voldemort, the terrified Peter Pettigrew was crouching in the shadows. He knew he was no match for the Dark Lord, and so he did the only thing he could think of. He transformed into a rat and scampered as quickly as he could in the direction of Albus Dumbledore. Unbeknownst to Peter, however, Bellatrix had been watching him and saw him transform, a manic glint in her eyes.

"Sad, that one of the most excellent family of Black should turn against my cause," Voldemort continued. "Would you please invite Mr. Potter to join us, Bella. He is standing directly behind you."

Bella turned and with a wave of her wand James came once more into view. Then, almost lazily, Voldemort waved his wand at James.

"Crucio."

"Protego!"

A shimmering shield appeared in front of James, blocking the curse.

"Really, Bella, I thought you were watching your dear cousin."

"It wasn't him my Lord."

"Ah, but of course. Miss Evans, if you would care to join the land of the visible."

Lily allowed the cloak to fall behind her, her wand trained on Voldemort.

"You did not actually think you could hurt me, my dear? A Mudblood such as yourself? I might not even have killed your despicable fiancée. Goodness knows it would be horrible for him to miss his own wedding. But, it appears the happy nuptials are going to have to be cancelled, as the bride and groom will be unable to attend."

"I don't think so Tom. I am quite looking forward to my wedding." James gave an almost imperceptible nod to Sirius, and instantly three spells shot out.

Bella had to jump hastily out of the way to dodge Sirius' spell. Then she turned in horror to watch James and Lily simultaneously try to disarm her master. And their combined spells succeeded where one would not have. Voldemort's wand flew in a graceful arc and landed on the ground.

Shock bloomed over Voldemort's face, and with a casual flick of his hand he summoned his wand and turned on the spot, disappearing into the night, the forms of his fallen Death Eaters disappearing with him, leaving Bella staring in horror at the three in front of her. But disdainful laughter quickly returned to her face.

"You will live to regret that." And with a parting shot at Sirius, who dodged her spell easily, she vanished to join her master. She had to tell him about an interesting little rat.

Before she was even gone, Lily had launched herself at Remus' fallen form and was waving her wand in complicated motions, muttering under her breathe. Sirius and James quickly joined her, worry on their handsome faces. It took several minutes, but eventually Remus drew an audible breathe and blearily opened his eyes.

"Moony, you've missed all the fun!" Sirius laughed, before gently scooping his fallen friend into his arms. "You two," he added to James and Lily, "better go back home. I'll take Moony to Dumbledore and tell him what happened. But he is going to be livid that you two came to fight."

James nodded silently, and drew Lily into his arms. Then, tightly clasping her to him, he apparated both of them home.


	29. A Walk to Remember

Chapter 29: A Walk to Remember

James was standing in front of a long mirror dressed in a tuxedo. Even though the wedding itself would be a wizard ceremony, Lily had insisted that she and James dress in the traditional Muggle fashion. He had tried, quite unsuccessfully, to straighten his hair and had been near breakdown when the boys had come in and Sirius had reminded him that Lily liked his hair messy. Now the Marauders were gathered around him, trying to prevent him from hyperventilating.

"Prongs, relax. Everything is going to be fine."

"You don't know that Remus. What if she's decided that she doesn't want to get married to me?"

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other, concern written over their faces. It had to be pretty bad for James to use their real names.

"Relax buddy." Peter spoke up hurriedly. "She said yes, didn't she?"

"Yes, following six years of hating my guts."

"She didn't hate you." Remus put in quickly.

"Need I remind you of the thousands of times she rejected me, yelled at me, and shattered my heart into a million pieces?"

"Yeah, but you aren't that arrogant little git anymore."

"Cause if you were we wouldn't need to be having this conversation." James glared at Sirius. "Right… not helping."

"Don't think about that," Remus said hastily. "Think about how great it is going to be to make Lily yours permanently."

A dreamy look came across James' face. "Yeah…" he murmured.

Sirius burst out laughing while looking at him.

"That's the same look you had on your face the day you first saw her, mate."

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Sirius and James had become instant friends on the train, after they simultaneously tried to play pranks on the fifth year Lucius Malfoy. On the boat ride across the lake the two were deep in a plot that came into affect the moment they reached the other side, where they flipped over the boat next to them in which sat a greasy haired boy boasting loudly about all the curses he knew.

But when the boat capsized a feminine shriek cut the air, and James was horrified. He hadn't meant to hurt a girl, he simply hadn't seen who was beside the boy in the boat. Hastily, James ran over and pulled the struggling girl out of the lake. Then he watched as she wrung out her hair and turned to yell at him.

James didn't hear a word she said.

He was staring at her like he had never seen a girl before. And indeed, he had never met a girl like her. Her long red hair hung down to the middle of her back, and even though it was sopping wet James simply knew that it was silky and beautiful. And then he noticed her eyes. They were almond shaped and brilliant green. James was thunderstruck.

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"She certainly does look good wet, doesn't she?"

"Yes, Prongs." Sirius smiled mischievously at him. "You'll have to soak her on your honeymoon." Remus shot Sirius a look that said quite plainly to shut up.

"I don't deserve her."

"No, you don't. But she seems to have fallen in love with you nonetheless."

"Why does she love me, Remus?"

"Because you finally grew up and showed her the real you."

"Yeah." James stared dazedly at his reflection, remembering that day when Lily had finally become his. "Can't wait to see her… haven't kissed her in a day and a half."

"Yeah, and tonight you'll get to do more than kiss her…"

"Padfoot!" Deep red was blossoming spectacularly over James' cheeks. "That's not why I'm marrying her."

"Sure, but you have to admit that it is a lovely added bonus."

"Play nice, boys." Peter said quickly, as James was about to murder his Best Man. "Come on, you two. Time for you to go up front, Prongs."

The color in James' face drained completely.

"James, all joking aside," the laughter was gone from Sirius' face. "You love Lily and she loves you. And I will personally castrate any one who thinks he can stop you from marrying her today. So let's go get you a wife."

James nodded and allowed himself to be led out the door.

Ten minutes later he found himself standing under a large tent. Behind him stood Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling merrily, and in front was a small group of people. Gwen was there, sitting next to Frank and Alice Longbottom. James' parents were smiling happily at him. A few more friends were there, but both Lily and James had wanted to keep the ceremony small.

Suddenly a soft music floated through the air and James looked to the back of the tent to where Sirius stood with Shannyn on his arm. James returned their beaming smiles with a small one of his own and watched nervously as they made their way down the aisle. Once Sirius was standing behind him, James turned his attention once more to the back of the tent.

There stood Lily.

She had one hand through Remus' arm and the other through Peter's. As she had no father of her own to walk her down the aisle she had decided that they were the next best thing. But none of this registered in James' mind. He didn't even glance at the stunning dress she wore or the flowers that were held in her hands. His eyes never left her face.

Sirius would afterwards swear that James hadn't breathed the entire time that Lily was walking down the aisle. James himself couldn't remember. He didn't recognize anything that was happening around him until Sirius gave him a sharp poke in the back and hissed in his ear,

"You're supposed to kiss her now!"

It wasn't until the reception that James got a good look at Lily's dress. It was remarkably simple for a wedding dress, but James liked it all the more for this reason. His Lily was beautiful without all the frills most brides seemed to find necessary. The only adornments she wore were small silver jewels in the shape of daisies in her hair and ears and a silk ribbon of vibrant green around her waist.

To James she had never been more beautiful.

The reception was at the Potter's home, and it was really nothing more than a nice dinner for the small wedding party and their few guests. No one wanted to attract any attention as the bride and groom already had a knack for bringing trouble. James was grateful for the small size of the party when Sirius stood up to deliver his toast—better known as a long and detailed recounting of the hundreds of times Lily had turned down James. James felt quite put out until Lily leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"But aren't you glad you kept asking?"

James beamed at her, gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and stood up.

"Thank you, Sirius, for heartily embarrassing me. Don't think I won't return the favor." He cast a not-so-subtle look in Shannyn's direction. "But it is about time for me to steal my lovely wife away from you; we have a Portkey to catch."

"Where are you taking her, Prongs?" Sirius called out, a grin on his face.

"None of your damn business."

And with that James helped Lily out of her chair and led her to a corner where an old lamp was waiting. Seconds later Lily was surrounded by the tropical smell of palm trees and a warm ocean breeze. But before she could really look around James had taken her in his arms and apparated with her—right into their own backyard.

"James? What's going on?"

"Now, if any trouble tries to come looking for us on our honeymoon they'll spend the whole time wandering around confused in Barbados. And besides, we don't need anything special—I've got you and that is more than enough."

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Lily smiled up at James; he always was protecting her, and she loved him for that. And he was all hers, all hers.

"Well Mrs. Potter," Lily beamed at him, "can I escort you into the house?"

"Why yes, Mr. Potter, you may."

But instead of taking her hand and leading her in he scooped her into his arms and carried her, Lily laughing the whole time. Once inside he set her gently down and enveloped her in his arms.

"I love you, Lily Potter."

She raised her head and caught a brief glimpse of his hazel eyes staring lovingly down at her before he was kissing her, and then that was all she could think about. James's kisses had always left her breathless, but there had always been a certain restraint before. But tonight he was no longer holding back. She was his and he knew it.

He pulled back eventually and waved at the table where a bottle of champagne stood waiting.

"Can I offer you some champagne, my lady?"

"You pour; I'm going to go change out of this dress."

Lily practically ran up the stairs. She could see that James had wanted to stop her. From the look in his eyes he had wanted the pleasure of taking that dress off of her. But she had something else planned for him, and she didn't think he would mind.

Quickly, Lily slipped out of her dress and hung it carefully in the closet. Then she changed into the present that Shannyn had insisted on giving her a day early. It was smooth and cream-colored silk and only fell mid-thigh. And it was just revealing enough that Lily knew James would go simply wild. She also pulled her hair down, letting it cascade down her back, knowing that James loved to play with it. Then with one final look in the mirror Lily slowly descended the stairs to her star-struck husband who promptly forgot about the champagne. They could always drink it tomorrow.

A/N: Sorry it has taken so long. I had my big doctoral exams last week and I really wanted this chapter not to be rushed. I know some of you may have liked a little more at the end there, but I really didn't want to cheapen something so beautiful. There will still be oodles of romance later on, but I left their wedding night up to you. Enjoy!


	30. A Cornered Rat

Chapter 30: A Cornered Rat

It was a day before Lily and James were supposed to return from their Honeymoon, and the Marauders were feeling the absence of their leader. The lack of James was particularly felt by Peter. He didn't seem to be included as much in the group without James there. Sirius just never had time for him it seemed. It had always been this way. From the very beginning it had been James especially who had tried to include Peter in the group, and it had been James who had stood up for him when someone thought him weak, and it had been James who had spend countless hours working with Peter on the animagus transformation. These thoughts were not very encouraging. And Peter had plenty of time for these thoughts, as Dumbledore had sent him to spy out Death Eater activity. Peter was always very good at this job, as a rat can go almost anywhere. Of course, Dumbledore didn't know this was why he was so good.

At the moment Peter was sitting curled in the corner of a bar in the back of Knockturn Alley watching the Lestrange brothers discuss an attack that had taken place the night before. The Order had thwarted their efforts to kill a particularly important Ministry official who just happened to be Muggle-born and the two brothers were fuming. Peter had been watching them for over an hour. Bellatrix had been with her husband and brother and law, wearing a scrap of cloth that could barely qualify as a dress. She was beautiful and she knew it.

Peter had watched jealously as she had showered affection on Rodolphus, and he thought almost wistfully what it would feel like if it were him, instead of her husband, who had his hands all over her. But then Bella had left, leaving the two brothers to discuss last night's failed attack.

"We have to get someone in there, a way to prevent them from stopping us."

"He has plans in the works about that…"

"Good. What do you know of these plans?"

"Bella learned of some… _interesting_ information recently that she thinks might be of use in this regard."

"What information?"

Rodolphus looked up and his eyes landed on the corner where Peter sat, and for a fleeting second Peter was worried that somehow Rodolphus knew he was there. But that was impossible. No one knew he was an animagus. Shaking himself, Peter returned his attention to the brothers. He needed to learn what this important information was.

It was at this moment that a hand shot out of nowhere and trapped Peter. As he was squealing and attempting to escape a voice whispered in his ear.

"The remarkable skills possessed by one Peter Pettigrew."

Peter's heart was racing. _They knew who he was! But how? Had one of his friends told on him? No. They would never betray him like that._

The figure carried him up the stairs to a dark back room. By the light of a single candle Peter could see a large and dusty bed shoved in the corner and a broken down dresser on the wall.

He was thrown unceremoniously onto the bed from which vantage point he watched the figure take off her cloak to reveal the form of Bellatrix Lestrange. Typical of Bella she managed to look truly evil and absolutely gorgeous at the same time. But this fact barely registered in Peter's mind before she had trained her wand on him and cast the spell that would force him to transform back into himself. Once in his human form he tried to sprint for the door, only to have her casually flick her wand and send him flying back to the bed.

"My dear Peter, you wouldn't want to run away from little old me, would you?"

"You're evil!"

"Yes, and doesn't that make me all the more enticing?"

"What are you bloody talking about?"

"Peter, didn't your mother ever teach you not to swear in front of a lady?"

"You're no lady."

"True, but it's the principal of the matter my boy."

"What do you want?"

"You."

"What!"

"My Lord and I both want you." Peter stared at her wide-eyed. "You know, of course, in what capacity My Lord wants you. And in reward you would get me, whenever and however you want me."

Peter sat transfixed on the bed, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. As Bella was talking she was slowly walking towards him, lowering her dress as she came, until she stood completely naked in front of him, close enough for him to reach out and touch. He licked his lips hungrily and looked up at her face, his breath coming in panting gasps.

"You know that you want me." She was only inches away from him.

"A powerful man such as yourself deserves the very best." She ran her hands up his arms and started to unbutton his shirt.

"After all, only a truly powerful man would be able to become an animagus. And without Dumbledore or the Ministry ever finding out." She pushed him down on the bed and climbed on top of him, her naked chest flush against his.

"Go ahead and take me."

And she was kissing him, and it was a kiss such as Peter had never experienced before. And he wanted her, more than he had ever wanted anyone before. But then the thought of his friends flashed in his mind and he realized what she was asking of him.

He pushed her roughly off of him and stood up.

"You are asking me to turn on and betray my friends for a few fleeting hours of pleasure?"

Bella didn't speak, she simply lay there on the bed, touching herself in ways that made him turn his head away so that he could think clearly, or as clearly as he could with a gorgeous naked woman in the same room as him. He had a decision to make, and he needed to think.

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Across town a different couple was lying in their own bed, dreading the next day when they would have to return to their normal lives. James had his arms wrapped tightly around his new wife. He did not want to share her with the rest of the world, as he would have to tomorrow. But this was not the only reason he was holding her tightly to him.

James had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling that something was happening—right at the moment—that was going to take him away from his wife. That somehow he was going to lose her, and there was little he could do about it. So James held Lily as close as he could, vowing to never let her go, and silently cursed anyone who ever tried to make him.

A/N: Sorry that this is a little shorter, but it is an extremely important chapter and I really needed to end it there. So sorry if you are really mad at me right now. (laughs evilly in the background) To make it up to you I think the next chapter is going to be especially long. A lot of very interesting things are scheduled to happen in it.


	31. A Marauder To Be

Chapter 31: A Marauder To Be

Peter stood looking at the creature before him. It was so tempting. He had never been sought after by woman like James and Sirius, or even Remus, and yet here was a startlingly beautiful woman offering herself to him. But was it worth the price she asked? Somehow, Peter doubted it. He knew that the boys would risk their lives for him, _had_ risked their lived for him on more than one occasion, and he could do the same.

"No."

The seductive smile on Bellatrix's face changed instantly to a snarl.

"You'll regret that boy," she hissed at him. Then she dove for her wand, and Peter—scared for his life—turned hastily on the spot and disapparated.

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Peter never told anyone about the offer Bellatrix had made to him. He was scared that Sirius would scoff at him for even being attracted to her in the first place, and that James would be mad that he ever even considered her offer. So when Lily and James returned from their honeymoon everything seemingly went back to normal.

James began work on one of the Auror quick response squads, and Lily continued her work with the Department for Experimental Charms. She spent all her time trying to find something, anything that could protect against the Unforgivable Curses. She knew from personal experience that the Imperius Curse could be fought by strength of mind and that the Cruciatus Curse was usually best fought by antagonizing the caster by refusing to scream. But nothing had ever stopped an Avada Kedavra, and most witches and wizards thought nothing ever would.

Lily was not one of them.

To her it was inconceivable that evil could have a tool that good could not fight against. If Avada Kedavra was unstoppable, then it would be the downfall of good in the world. And this she could not accept.

She had an idea, though. The other two Unforgivables were not fought with a special skill, or extreme magical ability; they were fought by an internal strength—specifically strength of mind and strength of body. They were fought by an extreme strength of the one thing the curse was attacking. So if she could just figure out what was the one thing that Avada Kedavra was most attacking, she might figure out how to block it.

But Avada Kedavra was attacking a person's very life itself. What did it mean to have strength of life?

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"Lily!" James's voice rang out through the quiet of their home in the late afternoon one gloomy day. "Where are you?" His voice was strangled and weak, almost desperate.

"In the kitchen!" came the distant response.

James dropped everything he was holding and nearly ran into the kitchen. Once there he enveloped Lily, soapy arms and all, in a tight hug. Lily was startled by his actions, but she immediately wrapped her arms around her trembling husband. James coming home like this was not wholly without precedent. On more than one occasion he had come back from work almost ill from the things he had seen. Being an Auror was not easy while the Wizarding world was at war with Voldemort.

But today was much worse than it had ever been before. And for some reason his fear seemed to be centered around the possibility of losing her, for he was holding her so tightly to him that Lily could barely breathe. She wondered briefly what it was that he had seen that had scared him so much. But this thought was quickly driven from her mind as she turned all her attention to helping the man in her arms. And she knew what it was she needed to do to help him.

James must have seen something horrendous, and he needed her love, so she freely gave him that. And for the next several hours her primary concern was to help the man she loved to get over the horror of the outside world. But it didn't fail to escape her notice that it was love that James craved and needed when faced with the horrors of the war. And Lily filed this information away to be examined when she had more leisure to do so.

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Shannyn woke up groggily to a loud pounding on the door. She glanced over to the sleeping Sirius by her side, astonished as always that he could sleep through so much noise, before getting up to answer the door.

"Lily? What are you doing here?"

Lily didn't answer, she simply launched herself into Shannyn's arms, tears running down her face. Shannyn guided her crying friend into the front room and deposited her on the couch before hastily running in and waking Sirius up with a request that he make tea. When Sirius came shuffling into the front room with a cup of tea, however, he dropped it in surprise and ran over to kneel in front of Lily.

"Lils! What's wrong? Did James hurt you, because I swear if he did I'll tear him limb to limb even if he is my best friend."

"No," Lily said weakly. "James didn't do anything wrong, I did."

"How could you do anything wrong? That boy worships the ground you walk on."

"But this is so big."

"Lily," Shannyn asked quietly, "What is it that you did, exactly."

"I got pregnant."

Sirius let a great whoop of joy and pulled Lily up to twirl her around the room. Then he set her back down on the couch and planted a large kiss on each of her cheeks with a huge grin on his face.

"How could that possibly be a bad thing?" He asked.

"How can we bring an innocent child into this world?"

"Do you honestly think James is going to care about that? That boy has been wanting to be the father of your children since the moment he first saw you."

"You're just saying that Sir."

"No, James told me so himself. So many bloody times that I wanted to shoot him, mind you."

"Really?"

"We can go ask Remus if you don't believe me."

Lily smiled up at him, slowly wiping the tears off her face.

"I'm going to have a baby." Sirius beamed at her. "And I told you before I told James." His face fell instantly.

"Bloody hell, Lil! James is going to kill me!"

"You'll just have to not let him find out that you knew first."

"That is impossible. I've never been able to keep anything from him."

"How about a little incentive to help you along?"

"Can I be Godfather?" Lily laughed.

"Sir, I think you already were going to be, but okay."

Sirius beamed at her, gave her one last hug, and skipped into the bedroom singing a rousing chorus of "Rock-a-bye-Baby" at the top of his voice.

"Sometimes I ask myself what I see in him," Shannyn said wryly as she watched him leave the room. Then she turned to Lily. "You're going to have a baby!"

"I know. I was really excited when I found out today, until I started to think about the world right now. Then I convinced myself that James would be angry. Especially as we didn't plan this. I guess I just think too much."

"How are you going to tell James?"

A devious smile slowly lit up Lily's tearstained face.

"I am the wife of a Marauder…"

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"Lils! I'm home!" James called as he entered the house the next day. Then he stopped at the sight in front of him. Lily was sitting on the couch with a large gift-wrapped box in front of her. "What's this?"

"I have a present for you."

"Really? What's the occasion?"

"You'll see."

A broad smile on his face, James bounded over to the box and reached for the box, but Lily stopped him.

"You have to promise me something first."

"Okay."

"Promise me that you won't let Harry see it until I allow it."

"Who's Harry?"

"A friend of mine. You'll be meeting him soon."

"Okay…"

"Promise, James."

"Fine, fine… I promise."

Lily beamed at him, then pushed the box towards him. Then she watched excitedly as he tore the paper off to reveal a box proclaiming itself to contain a miniature Quidditch pitch for Wizarding children. James looked up at her questioningly.

"Lils, what is this about?"

"I just wanted to make you promise," she said smiling at him, "that you wouldn't teach Harry Quidditch until I thought he was old enough."

"Harry?" he questioned slowly.

"Yes, Harry James Potter. Your son who will be arriving into the world in approximately eight months."

James stared at her for several long moments, than gave a great shout of excitement and launched himself onto his wife. And before Lily knew what he was doing, James had wrapped his arms around her and was talking excitedly to her stomach. She laughed at him.

"I take it your okay with this, then?"

"Are you kidding? We're going to have a son! Why wouldn't I be okay with it?"

"Just checking."

"Though I don't know how happy I am that you tricked me into not teaching him Quidditch until you think he is old enough."

"Well," she smiled down at him, "Someone has to teach our son how to be a Marauder, and being devious is a must for that title."

A/N: I am so sorry that this took so long! School started back up again and life has been crazy. But here it is. And just for those of you who are confused by Peter's response, it clearly stated in the books that he didn't turn until a little over a year before James and Lily died. Enjoy and let me know what you think…


	32. Third Time's the Charm

Chapter 32: Third Time's the Charm

James was ready to be a father. And this was not entirely due to the fact that he really wanted to share the world with his soon to be son. It was because Lily was driving him crazy. It only took him a month to realize that excessive hormones and redheads didn't mix very well. So poor James had spent the last several months meekly doing anything Lily wanted. And some of the food combinations she came up with were truly bizarre. He hadn't even been able to be in the same room that time she decided to eat salmon smothered in chocolate sauce with a pickle on top. It was now nearing the middle of July and Lily was seven and a half months pregnant. Remarkably, she had managed to keep the size of her stomach under reasonable control, and James periodically forgot she was pregnant, until she turned sideways that is, or started screaming at him. But that didn't stop him from fervently wishing the next two months would pass _very_ quickly. Due to the circumstances, Dumbledore had decided that the two of them should be put on reduced Order activity. Lily was simply dealing with the large amount of letter correspondence between members, and James had been limited to reconnaissance work.

It had been a particularly hot Thursday and James had come home to find Lily spread out on the coach, miserable and hot. Once the sun had set and the temperature had cooled off slightly he suggested they take a stroll down the road to a small ice cream parlor to get a cool snack. Lily took to the idea rather quickly, and only stopped to slip on a pair of flip-flops before heading out the door (she could no longer put on a normal pair of shoes on her own).

After the ice cream the two were strolling hand-in-hand through the local forest, happily talking about the baby that would soon be coming. The mediwizards had told Lily that it was going to be a boy on her very fist visit, so the typical uncertainty there was gone, but Lily and James were happily arguing about who little Harry would resemble the most. That is, until James' hold on Lily's hand suddenly tightened.

Strolling towards them nonchalantly was a cloaked figure, tall and thin, with red eyes. And his wand was trained on Lily.

"My dear Potters', how lovely it is to see you again."

"I can't really say I feel the same way, Tom." James replied lightly. But Lily could feel the controlled tension in his hand as it held hers, a good six inches away from the wand in his pocket.

"I wouldn't go for that wand, boy. In the 5 seconds it will take you to get it I will already have killed your unborn child and his mother." James didn't move.

"What do you want, Tom?"

"I thought we already discussed this, boy. I want you and your power. But the Mudblood and her spawn will have to go. Can't have her spoiling such a promising blood line, now can I?"

And Voldemort flicked his wrist and sent an orange spell directly at Lily's stomach. Without time to reach his wand, James simply dove in front of his wife, and took the spell himself. And as he fell gracefully to the earth Lily's scream split the still air, and she collapsed by his side.

"Well, the boy does appear to love you, Ms. Evans."

"The name is Potter," Lily said through gritted teeth. Tears were running silently down her cheeks, but there was no weakness in her eyes.

"If you insist," Voldemort returned, laughter in his voice. "How sad, Mr. Potter will not even be awake to see me kill you."

Lily quickly grasped James' wrist in her hand, satisfying herself that there was still a pulse, than she deftly grabbed his wand out of his pocket and stood slowly, two wands trained on the menace in front of her.

"Do you really think you can fight me?"

"You are not going to destroy my family!"

And a jet of light shot out of both the wands in her hand at once, knocking Voldemort back. By the time he had gotten back to his feet Lily had apparated James straight to the lobby of St. Mungo's.

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James woke up in a white hospital bed. His hand automatically began searching for his glasses, only to have them handed to him by a grinning Sirius.

"Good to see you up mate," he said, beaming. "I've been going spare without you to amuse me."

"Where's Lils, is she okay?"

Sirius' smile faltered for a second.

"She's resting now."

"Where?"

Instead of answering Sirius moved around to other side of the bed and slowly opened the curtains surrounding the bed next to James', revealing a sleeping Lily. James sat straight up, and tried desperately to get out of bed.

"Don't even try it, mate, or the Healers will put you back to sleep."

"What happened to her? I don't remember anything after I took the curse for her. Is the baby alright?"

"One thing at a time, I'm not supposed to overexcite you."

"Padfoot, tell me what is wrong with my wife or overzealous Healers will be the last thing on your mind." Sirius nodded, then sat down in the chair by his side.

"Lily was conscious enough to tell us that Voldemort had attacked you, that you took a curse for her, and that she used both of your wands combined to blast the bloody maniac off his feet. Then she collapsed. The Healers reckon that in attacking Voldemort she drew on both her and the baby's magic, using everything she had to protect you. Only it left both her and the baby a little low on magic… and things haven't been going well. They put her into a deep sleep, trying to prolong the moment when the baby will be born. But they can't wait much longer. If they don't do something soon they are worried that the baby won't make it."

"How long have I been out?" James asked through gritted teeth.

"It's the 28th."

"You tell them they better save both her and the baby or they are going to wish Voldemort had gotten a hold of them instead of me." Sirius' eyes twinkled. "And you had bloody well better get this bed close enough that I can hold her hand."

With a casual flick of his wand, the bed slid over towards Lily's, and James spent the next two days holding Lily's still hand and threatening to hex anyone that came near her.

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In a house far away a man sat staring into the fire, musing about how someone had managed to overcome him, and a pregnant Mudblood at that. And slowly he came to the conclusion that not only was James Potter an exceptionally powerful wizard, but Lily Potter had to have sources of power completely unknown to him. Maybe he should be trying to recruit her instead of her husband…

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James woke abruptly, and not till he had assured himself that Lily was still by his side did he look up to find Albus Dumbledore sitting in front of him. But all the twinkle was missing from Dumbledore's eyes and his characteristic smile hadn't even left a trace.

James had never seen Dumbledore so worried.

"Is she going to be okay, Sir?"

"Both Lily and your son should be fine, James, at least for the time being."

"What do you mean, Sir?" 

"I had asked, based on some information I have, that the birth of your son be put off as long as possible. However, the Healers now tell me that if they don't do something soon the baby will not make it. Thus tomorrow morning they will awaken Lily and your son will probably be born shortly after."

"What information?"

"I do not wish to tell you that right now, James. And it is not because I don't trust you. I will tell you soon, but I want you to enjoy the first joys of being a father, and we must wait until Lily is back with us."

"It almost sounds like I don't want to hear it."

"James, I doubt you do." Dumbledore sighed heavily, "but that doesn't change the fact that you must. As we have seen, you and Lily are exceptionally gifted, and it appears that your son will follow this pattern, as evidenced by the fact that his magic is already well enough formed as to allow Lily to have used it. That is rare."

"I just want to protect my family."

"I know, James, and I promise that I will do all in my power to protect them as well. But let us not talk of gloomy things now. If I am not much mistaken, tomorrow, the last day of July, you will have much to celebrate."


	33. Born as the Seventh Month Dies

Chapter 33: Born as the Seventh Month Dies

Lily's eyes slowly blinked open. She was lying in a bed in what was clearly St. Mungo's, and a team of Healers was staring down at her. This concerned her briefly, though before she could realize why all her attention was caught by a strong pain shooting from her back to her large and swollen belly. She screamed in shock and agony, and impulsively fisted her hands, only to realize that one of her hands was enfolded in large hand of someone else.

"James…" she whispered.

"Hey love."

He didn't look good. Lily had never seen so much worry across the handsome lines of his face. And judging by the fact that he himself was still wearing hospital robes, it hadn't been all that long since he had awoken either.

"You're in labor, Lil."

"No! It's too early!" She looked at him frantically, and saw a tear gliding down his cheek.

"They put you in a deep sleep to try and put it off, but your body can't handle it anymore. But the Healers say it should be okay."

"It hurts, James."

"I know, love." And his handle gently released hers so that he could lift a potion bottle to her lips. "Drink this, it will help with the pain." Obediently, she drank. "And everything will be just fine."

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An hour later, things didn't sound just fine to the small crowd waiting outside Lily's room. The first time Lily had screamed Sirius had shot up, ready to bolt into the room, but Shannyn's hand on his arm held him back. Since then he had taken to pacing the corridor, wand fisted in his hand, and a deep grimace on his face.

Sirius was not a patient man.

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Night had fallen across London, and most of the town was fast asleep, but inside a dilapidated old store a crowd was still gathered outside Lily's room. Sirius was still pacing, closely watched by Shannyn. Remus and Peter were sitting slumped in chairs on either side of the door. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were sitting in chairs on the other side of the hall, worry etched across their faces.

For several hours now they had been listening to Lily's screams and yells as she tried vainly to curse the husband who had done this to her. But for the last several minutes there had been no sounds coming from the room.

And then they heard a baby cry.

Sirius stopped pacing, and Remus jumped to his feet.

Slowly the door swung open, and James emerged, a bundle of blankets in his arms and a goofy grin on his face. He went up to his mother, and placed the bundle in her arms.

"Meet your grandson, Mum, Harry James Potter."

While the elder Potters' were cooing over Harry, James was being engulfed in a slightly frightening bear hug by Sirius.

"Padfoot, mate, you're chocking me!"

Laughing, Sirius just held on tighter until Remus and Peter took pity on the new father and released him. Then the four friends stood happily over the youngest Marauder, all lamenting the fact that the poor kid would be doomed to the Potter hair, while Shannyn quietly slipped into the room.

Lily was lying on her bed, exhaustion etched on her face, but with a happy smile nonetheless.

"Congratulations, Lils."

Lily's eyes flew open and she beamed at her best friend.

"Did you see him? Isn't he beautiful?"

"Yeah, I saw him. He's out there now being indoctrinated about the arts of Maraudering. And he is beautiful, looks just like his dad."

"Except for his eyes, he has his mum's eyes." James was back, and he carefully placed his bundle in the arms of his wife, smiling down at her as he did so. "Thank you, Lil. Thank you for my son."

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Albus Dumbledore stood sadly in the doorway, watching the new family before him. Years ago when Lily and James were screaming at each other in the halls of Hogwarts he never would have guessed how much the young couple in front of him would have changed so soon. But here they were, the young mother tenderly holding her new son, while the new father watched proudly from her side. They were happy, and he wished that they could remain so, but it was not to be.

For what he had to tell them would forever change their lives.

Taking a deep breath he slowly entered the room.

"My congratulations, Lily. You have a fine boy there who I have no doubt will one day be running around the halls of Hogwarts, plaguing my existence." He smiled kindly at her. "May I join you for a few minutes?"

"Of course Professor, please come in."

Dumbledore nodded, then turned and shut the door and came and sat by the bedside. James looked curiously at the sad man in front of him, then a memory sprang to his mind—a memory of waking up to have Dumbledore tell him that after the birth of his son he would have news for them. James' young faced hardened, and he cast a series of silence and protecting charms around the room. Lily looked at him curiously, but Dumbledore just nodded.

"Already set on protecting your young family, James. Good, very good. What I have to tell you is best kept to yourselves. I would not even tell the full truth to your family, James, or your friends."

"I'm going to tell Sirius."

Dumbledore looked at him intently for a few minutes, then nodded his agreement. "I suspected as much." He paused, looking down at the hands he had clasped in his lap. "About two months ago I was engaged in the unfortunate task of interviewing Divination teachers for Hogwarts."

James snorted, then muttered a hasty "sorry" when Dumbledore stopped.

"I was not inclined to allow the subject to continue at Hogwarts, but I was nevertheless prepared to at least meet the applicants. I went to the Hog's Head, where a young witch named Sybill Trelawney was waiting for me. Just as the interview was concluding, Sybill slipped into a trance and uttered a prophecy concerning Lord Voldemort. I did not think it would concern you, until recently, but now you have the right to know what that prophecy said."

Dumbledore looked up at Lily, who was instinctively clasping Harry tightly to her chest, and James, who had his hand protectively placed on her shoulder. What he was about to tell them would most probably ruin their lives, but it must be said.

He went on.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…."

"No!" Silent tears were running down Lily's face, and James' hand on her shoulder was white at the knuckles.

"This is not all," Dumbledore continued. "The first part of the prophecy was… overheard by a servant of Voldemort. He is now seeking a child born at the end of July to those who have thrice defied him."

"So… that means that Harry… that Harry will have to defeat Voldemort?"

"Not necessarily. The requirements of the prophecy are also fulfilled by young Neville Longbottom, born the day before Harry. However, as Voldemort knows a portion of this prophecy, he is likely to come after both boys, thinking that by killing them as children he would fulfill the prophecy and thus insure his own invincibility."

"NO!" James had finally spoken. He was on his feet, rage etched across his face. "He is not going to destroy my family."

"My dear boy, I hope not. But we must take every precaution necessary to protect your son."

"I'm going to go find Sirius. He can help."

"Very well," Dumbledore agreed, "but I ask that only he knows the full extent of the prophecy. It will be extremely dangerous if Voldemort were to learn the whole thing."

James nodded, and strode purposely from the room. When he had gone, Dumbledore turned once more to Lily.

"Lily, I am sorry to add more to your burden, but I must tell you more than even James can know." She looked up at him, curiosity visible through her tears. "It was Severus who overheard the prophecy and informed Voldemort of it." Lily's eyes flashed, and her jaw hardened. "But you must know, that when he learned of the birth of your son, that it could be your son who the prophecy referred to, and that he had unintentionally sent Voldemort after you, he repented of his ways. It is he who told me that Voldemort knew a portion of the prophecy. And in return for my promise to protect you and your family, he has placed himself in my service as a spy against Voldemort." Dumbledore paused as furious emotions battled across Lily's face. "I tell you this not to give you pain, but so that you may understand. But I must ask you to tell no one of this." Lily looked up at him quickly.

"James…"

"No, not even James. How do you think James would react to learning that his son and wife are in danger because of Severus Snape? No, it is best if no one but yourself knows."

"I understand Professor." Her voice was strained, clipped. "And please tell… please tell Severus thank you for me, for I cannot tell him myself."

Dumbledore silently nodded and left the room, leaving the young mother to her very disturbed thoughts.

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Lily sat in her room, late that night, afraid to close her eyes and leave her son unguarded. The words of the prophecy that Dumbledore had revealed to her were running through her mind. Her son was in trouble and there was very little that she could do to protect him, and this thought was killing Lily. She had thought, before Harry, that she loved James more than she would ever love another person, more than it was possible to love any other person. But when the Healer had placed Harry in her arms for the first time she had realized just how wrong she had been. She loved Harry so much it was indescribable and incomparable.

And now he was in trouble.

Love… why wasn't her love enough to protect her son?

This thought troubled her for hours. Then in the early hours of the morning, just before she finally drifted off to sleep, a though crossed her mind. She had been able to save James, to overcome Voldemort on her own, simply because she loved him. True, it had nearly killed her and her unborn child, but her love had made her strong enough to save the one she loved. And then there was Severus. Lily knew that he loved her, that he had always loved her. And yesterday she had been given the proof of that. How much was he willing to risk because he loved her. Nothing she had ever said was enough to keep him from following Voldemort, but the thought of losing her caused him to stop, and more than that, he was to spy for Dumbledore. Maybe there was something to this love thing. Maybe it was powerful enough to stop evil from harming those she loved. Love might just well be the thing she hadn't thought of.


	34. For the Love of Her Son

Chapter 34: For the Love of Her Son

Chapter 34: For the Love of Her Son

Lily and James took Harry home a week after he was born. Safe within the walls of St. Mungo's they had striven to enjoy the only peace they would have for a very long time. But their joy was always overclouded by the knowledge that once they left the protection of the hospital Voldemort would be waiting. Remus and Sirius had spent the week they were in the hospital placing every protection spell they could think of on their home, all in a vain hope that it would some how protect the small boy who was already a marked man. True to his word, James had only told Sirius the full prophecy, and the change this brought over the normally joyful and happy man was astounding to those who knew him. He was not going to let anyone harm those he loved without a fight.

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Lily had barely stepped in the door when a large black dog came bounding up to her, barking madly at the sight of the small bundle in her arms.

"Sirius!" She cried, laughing. "Let me breath!"

He barked once more, than he was once more a man, hugging both her and Harry tightly in greeting.

"Welcome home, Lils. It is good to see you up and about." Then he scooped Harry out of her arms. "And now it is time that we begin indoctrinating him in the art of making mischief."

"Sirius!" But he was already gone, happily chattering away to the boy in his arms.

Lily rolled her eyes at her husband's best friend, then let them be.

There would be far few days that would happy in their lives.

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Dumbledore had absolutely forbidden Lily and James from participating in any Order business, so they were enjoying a large cup of hot cocoa one cold February day when Sirius stumbled in, cuts and bruises covering his arms and face. James was on his feet in an instant.

"Padfoot, what happened!"

"Gwen…"

"No!"

Lily was there, looking pleadingly into his face. But Sirius simply shook his head, and she collapsed to the floor, tears running down her face.

"She was gone by the time we got there."

"Where's Moony?"

"I… I don't know. Voldemort left him a note. Said it was Moony's fault that Gwen was dead, that if he had simply joined the right side she would still be alive."

James started pacing up and down the room, his wand clenched tightly in his fist.

"We have to find him."

"I tried to."

"Well we'll just have to bloody try harder!"

"Damn it James, I did! I told you she was dead when we got there. I didn't get like this from fighting bloody Death Eaters!"

"Remus?"

"He wasn't exactly acting like himself."

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Harry's first birthday was a subdued affair. Remus came for a few minutes, left a crudely wrapped present for Harry, then hastily left. He had been refusing to be in company since Gwen.

Even Peter was acting oddly. Though truth be told he had been odd ever since Harry had been born. And he wasn't around very much. James and Sirius thought he had finally found himself a girl, and just didn't want to tell them about it. But Lily wondered.

They had planned to spend the day with James' parents, but Remus' appearance had made them rather late in setting out, as James had to convince Lily to stop crying before they could leave.

They realized later how lucky this was.

"Mate, why is it taking so long for them to answer the door?"

Sirius, James and Lily had been standing outside the door for a good five minutes, Sirius pounding on the door to let them in.

"Padfoot, stay with Lily and Harry."

"You going to use the…"

"Yeah."

And James was gone. Lily rounded on the man standing next to her.

"What is going on Sirius Black!"

"Calm down, Lils. James is just going to get in using this tunnel he and I dug back when we were kids."

"Tunnel?"

"Yeah, for when we wanted to sneak out and didn't fancy getting caught."

"But where are his parents?"

"I'm sure they just slept in or something. Don't worry, Lils. It's a holiday. Nothing bad is going to happen today."

"Sirius, I lost me parents on Christmas, remember?"

Luckily for Sirius, James chose that moment to open the door.

"Finally, mate. Took you…"

But he trailed off, looking at the glint of steel flashing in James' eyes.

"We have to get out of here. Now."

"But Prongs, what about your parents?"

James didn't answer, but as he reached out to wrap his arms around Lily and Harry he looked up at his best friend. And just before James apparated away, Sirius could have sworn he saw a single solitary tear rolling down James' cheek.

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The next month slowly crept past. Lily and James had barricaded themselves in their home, and only the Marauders and Shannyn were allowed in. James hated such precautions, but Dumbledore had recently come to believe that there was a spy in the Order, and thought it best.

Remus still hadn't recovered. No matter what they told him he still blamed himself for Gwen's death. He said that she would still be alive if he wasn't a werewolf, and that he had been right all along. He claimed it wasn't safe for him to be with anyone, and he would never love again. He seemed to think that even his friends were in danger. As the months had passed since he lost her, he came over less and less, as if wanting to distance himself from them.

Lily understood, she knew what it was like to lose someone you love, and so she didn't push him. She never realized that Sirius thought there was a much different reason that Remus was choosing to stay away.

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It was early October, and Lily was sitting in front of the fire, Harry playing happily on the floor while she was buried in a veritable mountain of books. They had decided to use a Fidelius charm to try and protect their son. It was a last resort, as things had been slowly deteriorating over the last year. And Lily didn't want anymore of those she cared about to die trying to protect her. But the charm was extremely difficult, it would take weeks to get everything ready, and she couldn't afford to make a mistake.

Her study was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Her body tense, she cast a disillusionment charm on Harry. They had been hiding him under James' invisibility cloak whenever someone came by, but Dumbledore had asked to borrow it last week and had yet to return it.

Her precautions were unnecessary. When she opened the door it was to see Shannyn on the step, inexplicably beaming. Extremely grateful that it was only Shannyn, Lily pulled her best friend in and gave her a fierce hug.

"Shann, it is so good to see you. Come in and tell me how everyone is." Shannyn's smile faltered.

"Not that good. But what can be expected. Sirius hasn't laughed in weeks, I haven't seen Remus in almost a month, and Peter has seemed awfully anxious about something." She shook her head, as if ridding herself of these painful thoughts. "But that isn't why I came by. I want to give you some good news for a change."

"Good news?"

"Yes." She beamed at Lily. "Sirius proposed last night!"

"And what did you say?"

Shannyn didn't answer. Instead, she simply held her hand up so that Lily could see the sparkling new ring.

It was several hysterical minutes before the girls had calmed down enough to make their way to the couch and sit down. Lily quickly removed the spell on her son and scooped him in to her lap, then once more turned to her best friend.

"Tell me everything! How did he ask you? And how come I didn't know about this before?"

"He said that he was so nervous he didn't want anyone to know before in case he chickened out." Lily laughed.

"Sirius, chickening out. Like that would ever happen."

"Lily, there's more." Shannyn looked suddenly nervous. "I'm pregnant."

"Does Sirius know?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Not yet. He has been so worried recently, I don't want to give him something else to worry about."

Lily nodded her understanding, but her mind was reeling. They hadn't told Shannyn what spell they intended to cast, and so she didn't know that Sirius had agreed to be their secret keeper. Lily knew that even if he knew he was going to be a father he would still do this for them, but that didn't mean it was right. She didn't know how she could put Sirius in such danger when he had a pregnant fiancé waiting for him. Now she just had to find a way to convince James to use someone else without telling him about Shannyn.

That should be interesting.

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It was several weeks later that Peter and Sirius showed up to perform the charm. Lily had only succeeded in part of her plan. Sirius wasn't going to be their secret keeper, but he had insisted that no one knew they had changed plans. He said if he couldn't help by keeping their secret he would help by protecting the one that was going to instead.

And so that night Lily performed the Fidelius charm, confident that her family would finally be safe.

For Peter would never betray them.

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Unfortunately, he already had

But Lily wouldn't realize this until she heard the rush of oncoming death as she stood between the madman in front of her and her son. She knew it was hopeless, that Voldemort would simply kill Harry after he had disposed of her. But if her son was going to die, then she was going to be there to greet him when he did. She would not live without the two people she loved most in her life. Life without love would be no life at all.

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It took thirteen years for Shannyn to learn that Sirius hadn't betrayed her best friend. When she learned of his apparent betrayal she had fled, thinking never to return. And even after she learned the truth, she hesitated. She didn't know how he could forgive her for not trusting him. For not telling him about their son. Before she had made up her mind to return, she heard that Sirius had died protecting young Harry. And so Shannyn mourned the only man she had ever loved, and told her young son the stories of his brave father.

And when Evan was eighteen years old, he finally asked her to do the impossible. He wanted to go back, to see if there was anyone left from his mother's old life.

It was a stormy day in July when they stood on the steps of a tall and lopsided home. A sign in front called it "The Burrow". Shannyn had heard that since his recent defeat of Voldemort Harry Potter had been living with his best friend's family, and so she had come to finally find her godson. Slowly, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

A tall man opened the door, and Shannyn stared at him. It took her several long minutes to realize that it wasn't James who was standing in front of her.

"Can I help you?" He finally asked, and it was only then she saw his eyes, Lily's eyes.

"I've come to find you."

It nearly broke her heart when the young man tensed and raised a wand at her. His life had been so broken and miserable that he couldn't fathom anyone coming to find him that didn't mean him harm. Ignoring the wand he had trained on her, she continued.

"By name is Shannyn, and your mother was my best friend."

Slowly the wand came down.

"But then, that means that you're my…"

"Yes, I'm your godmother."

She barely had time to register the shock in his green eyes before he had taken a step forward and wrapped her in a large hug. Tears ran silently down her face.

"I'm so sorry I never came before, but… I couldn't face it. And with Sirius…"

Harry stepped back from her.

"What about Sirius?"

It was then that Harry realized for the first time that she wasn't alone. A man was hiding in the shadows behind her. But he had stirred uneasily at the mention of Sirius' name.

"I couldn't stand to face my fiancé after I had believed that he…"

"You were engaged?" Harry interrupted her.

She nodded, then slowly reached back and drew the man into the light. And Harry drew in a sharp breath. For as much as he was the spitting image of his own father, the boy in front of him looked just like Sirius.

"I'd like you to meet my son, Evan James Black."

Harry let out a strangled cry, and then launched himself at the son of his father's best friend. And there, in the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole, a tortured young man finally found the family he thought he had lost, and the sons of James and Sirius embraced each other in memory of their fathers.

And Shannyn never thought of leaving again.

A/N: So I can't find a good way to separate scenes, hopefully it should make sense.

So my story has finally come to an end. I hope you enjoyed it. I'd like to thank all of you who reviewed, as it was very nice and encouraging to hear your feedback. I'll be back when I think of another story to write.

Hermy D.


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